BK 
123 


Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

Form  L  1 

m 

f5A^ 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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OCT  2  4  1^^7 

NOV  1 1  1927 
OCT  1  0  ly^iij 

OCT  3  0  19« 
MOV  2  3  1928> 

pel  ^    <^^^' 

JAN    19  1931 


iUL  2  9  1937 


4EP  23  I9<3r 

JAM  2  5  19(30 


OCT  17  I9jr 


OCT  24  1935 


Form  L-9-15m-8,'26 


■'  'k 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

BEING 

THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN ;  THE  IDEA  OF 

GOD;    THROUGH    NATURE   TO 

GOD  J  LIFE  EVERLASTING 


BY 


JOHN   FISKE 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


83927 


COPYRIGHT    1884,    1885,   AND    1 899  BY  JOHN  FISKB 

COPYRIGHT    1 90 1    BY  ABBY  M.    FISKE,  EXECUTRIX 

COPYRIGHT    1902   BY  HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN   &  CO. 

ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


\ 

CONTENTS 

THE  DESTINY   OF  MAN  VIEWED  IN  THE 
LIGHT   OF  HIS   ORIGIN 

Preface    ....•••! 
I.  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  as  affected  by  the  Co- 

pernican  Theory  ....  3 

II.   Man's  Place  in  Nature,  as  affected  by  Darwinism         9 
IIL  On  the  Earth  there  will  never  be  a  Higher  Crea- 
ture than  Man        .  .  .  .  .15 
IV.  The  Origin  of  Infancy     .          .          .          .  22 
V.   The  Dawning  of  Consciousness     .          .          .27 
VI.   Lengthening  of  Infancy,  and  Concomitant  In- 
crease of  Brain-Surface           ...  34 
VII.   Change  in  the  Direction  of  the  Working  of 

Natural  Selection    .  .  .  .  •39 

VIII.   Growing  Predominance  of  the  Psychical  Life  42 

IX.   The  Origins  of  Society  and  of  Morality        .  45 

X.   Improvableness  of  Man        ...  *        49 

XI.  Universal  Warfare  of  Primeval  Men   .  .  53 

XII.   First  checked  by  the  Beginnings  of  Industrial 

Civilization  .  .  .  .  .  .56 

XIII.  Methods  of  Political  Development,  and  Elimina- 

tion of  Warfare  ....  59 

XIV.  End  of  the  Working  of  Natural  Selection  upon 

Man.     Throwing  off  the  Brute-Inheritance         67 

XV.   The  Message  of  Christianity  .  .  •73 

XVI.  The  Question  as  to  a  Future  life       .  .  76 


Vll 


CONTENTS 

THE   IDEA   OF  GOD   AS   AFFECTED   BY 
MODERN   KNOWLEDGE 
Preface    .......        89 

I.  Difficulty  of  expressing  the  Idea  of  God  so  that 

it  can  be  readily  understood  .  .  .  1 1 1 

II.   The  Rapid  Growth  of  Modern  Knowledge      .  119 

III.  Sources  of  the  Theistic  Idea      .  .  .  131 

IV.  Development  of  Monotheism         .          .          .  138     , 
V.   The  Idea  of  God  as  Immanent  in  the  World  1451/ 

VI.   The  Idea  of  God  as  remote  from  the  World  I  50  ^ 
VII.   Conflict  between  the  two  Ideas,  commonly  mis- 
understood as  a  Conflict  between  Religion 

and  Science        .  .  .  .  .  l58^ 

VIII.   Anthropomorphic  Conceptions  of  God    .  .169 

IX.   The  Argument  from  Design      .  .  .  175 

X.   Simile  of  the  Watch  replaced  by  Simile  of  the 

Flower  .  .  .  .  .  .182 

XI.   The  Craving  for  a  Final  Cause  .  .  186 

XII.   Symbolic  Concepdons  .  .  .  .191 

XIII.  The  Eternal  Source  of  Phenomena      .  .  194 

XIV.  The  Power  that  makes  for  Righteousness  .  204 

THROUGH   NATURE   TO    GOD 

Preface  .  .  .  .  .  ,  215 

The  Mystery  of  Evil 

I.  The  Serpent's  Promise  to  the  Woman    .  ,  225 

II.   The  Pilgrim's  Burden      .  .  .  .  229 

III.  Manichaeism  and  Calvinism  .  ,  .  234 , 

IV.  The  Dramatic  Unity  of  Nature           .          .  240 
V.   What  Conscious  Life  is  made  of  .          .          .  244 

VI.   Without  the  Element  of  Antagonism  there  could 

be  no  Consciousness,  and  therefore  no  World  249 

VII.   A  Word  of  Caudon  .  .  .  .  253 

VIII.  The  Hermit  and  the  Angel  .         .         .256 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 

IX.  Man's  Rise  from  the  Innocence  of  Brutehood  260 

X.  The  Relativity  of  Evil     .          .          .          .    '  265 

The  Cosmic  Roots  of  Love  and  Self-Sacrifice 

I.   The  Summer  Field,  and  what  it  tells  us           .  271 

II.   Seeming  Wastefulness  of  the  Cosmic  Process  276 

III.  Caliban's  Philosophy        .          .          .          .  281 

IV.  Can  it  be  that  the  Cosmic  Process  has  no  Rela- 

tion to  Moral  Ends?        .  .  .  .283 

V.   First  Stages  in  the  Genesis  of  Man      .          .  287 

VI.   The  Central  Fact  in  the  Genesis  of  Man          .  29 1 

VII.  The  Chief  Cause  of  Man's  lengthened  Infancy  293 

VIII.   Some  of  its  Effects           .          .          .          ,  299 

IX.   Origin  of  Moral  Ideas  and  Sentiments     .  .304 

X.  The  Cosmic  Process  exists  purely  for  the  Sake 

of  Moral  Ends  .....  309 

XI.   Maternity  and  the  Evolution  of  Altruism          .  315 

XII.   The  Omnipresent  Ethical  Trend         .          .  322 

The  Everlasting  Reality  of  Religion 

I.   **  Deo  erexit  Voltaire  "       ....  327 

ll.   The  Reign  of  Law,  and  the  Greek  Idea  of  God  337 

III.  Weakness  of  Materialism            .          .          .  341 

IV.  Religion's  First  Postulate  :    the  Quasi-Human 

God 349 

V.  Religion's  Second  Postulate  :  the  Undying  Hu- 
man Soul            .          .          .          .          .  353 
VI.   Religion's  Third  Postulate  :  the  Ethical  Signifi- 
cance of  the  Unseen  World       .          .          .356 
VII.   Is  the  Substance  of  Religion  a  Phantom,  or  an 

Eternal  Reality  ?           .          .          ,          .  358 
VIII.   The  Fundamental  Aspect  of  Life  .          .           .360 

IX.   How  the  Evolution  of  Senses  expands  the  World  364 
X.   Nature's    Eternal    Lesson    is    the    Everlasting 

Reality  of  Religion      ,          .          ,         ,  367 


IX 


CONTENTS 

LIFE   EVERLASTING 

Life  Everlasting       ,         .         .         •         .         •     "ill 
Notes  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         *         417 

Index       .  .  .  •         .  .  .  .421 


THE   DESTINY   OF   MAN 

VIEWED  IN  THE  LIGHT 

OF  HIS  ORIGIN 


TO 

MY  CHILDREN, 

MAUD.  HAROLD,  CLARENCE,  RALPH, 
ETHEL,  AND  HERBERT, 


IS  LOVINGLY  DEDICATED 


H 


PREFACE 

AVING  been  invited  to  give  an  address 
before  the  Concord  School  of  Philoso- 
phy this  summer,  upon  some  subject 
relating  to  the  question  of  immortality  there 
under  discussion,  it  seemed  a  proper  occasion 
for  putting  together  the  following  thoughts  on 
the  origin  of  Man  and  his  place  in  the  universe. 
In  dealing  with  the  unknown,  it  is  well  to  take 
one's  start  a  long  way  within  the  limits  of  the 
known.  The  question  of  a  future  life  is  gener- 
ally regarded  as  lying  outside  the  range  of  legit- 
imate scientific  discussion.  Yet  while  fully  ad- 
mitting this,  one  does  not  necessarily  admit 
that  the  subject  is  one  with  regard  to  which  we 
are  forever  debarred  from  entertaining  an  opin- 
ion. Now  our  opinions  on  such  transcendental 
questions  must  necessarily  be  affected  by  the 
total  mass  of  our  opinions  on  the  questions 
which  lie  within  the  scope  of  scientific  inquiry  ; 
and  from  this  point  of  view  it  becomes  of  sur- 
passing interest  to  trace  the  career  of  Humanity 
within  that  segment  of  the  universe  which  is 
accessible  to  us.    The  teachings  of  the  doctrine 


PREFACE  TO  THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

of  evolution  as  to  the  origin  and  destiny  of 
Man  have,  moreover,  a  very  great  speculative 
and  practical  value  of  their  own,  quite  apart 
from  their  bearings  upon  any  ultimate  questions. 
The  body  of  this  essay  is  accordingly  devoted 
to  setting  forth  these  teachings  in  what  I  con- 
ceive to  be  their  true  light ;  while  their  tran- 
scendental implications  are  reserved  for  the 
sequel. 

As  the  essay  contains  an  epitome  of  my  own 
original  contributions  to  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution, I  have  added  at  the  end  a  short  list  of 
references  to  other  works  of  mine,  where  the 
points  here  briefly  mentioned  are  more  fully 
argued  and  illustrated.^  The  views  regarding 
the  progress  of  human  society,  and  the  elimi- 
nation of  warfare,  are  set  forth  at  greater  length 
in  a  little  book  now  in  the  press,  and  soon  to 
appear,  entitled  "  American  Political  Ideas." 

Petersham,  September  6,  1884. 

^  [In  the  present  edition  these  references  are  at  the  foot 
of  the  page.  J 


THE   DESTINY  OF    MAN 


I 


MAN'S  PLACE  IN  NATURE,  AS  AF- 
FECTED BY  THE  COPERNICAN 
THEORY 

WHEN  we  study  the  Divine  Comedy 
of  Dante  —  that  wonderful  book 
wherein  all  the  knowledge  and  spec- 
ulation, all  the  sorrows  and  yearnings,  of  the 
far-off  Middle  Ages  are  enshrined  in  the  glory 
of  imperishable  verse  —  we  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  a  theory  of  the  world  and  with  ways 
of  reasoning  about  the  facts  of  nature  which 
seem  strange  to  us  to-day,  but  from  the  influ- 
ence of  which  we  are  not  yet,  and  doubtless 
never  shall  be,  wholly  freed.  A  cosmology  gro- 
tesque enough  in  the  light  of  later  knowledge, 
yet  wrought  out  no  less  carefully  than  the  phy- 
sical theories  of  Lucretius,  is  employed  in  the 
service  of  a  theology  cumbrous  in  its  obsolete 
details,  but  resting  upon  fundamental  truths 
which  mankind  can  never  safely  lose  sight  of. 
In  the  view  of  Dante  and  of  that  phase  of  hu- 

3 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

man  culture  which  found  In  him  its  clearest  and 
sweetest  voice,  this  earth,  the  fair  home  of  man, 
was  placed  in  the  centre  of  a  universe  wherein 
all  things  were  ordained  for  his  sole  behoof:  the 
sun  to  give  him  light  and  warmth,  the  stars 
in  their  courses  to  preside  over  his  strangely 
checkered  destinies,  the  winds  to  blow,  the 
floods  to  rise,  or  the  fiend  of  pestilence  to  stalk 
abroad  over  the  land, — all  for  the  blessing,  or 
the  warning,  or  the  chiding,  of  the  chief  among 
God's  creatures,  Man.  Upon  some  such  con- 
ception as  this,  indeed,  all  theology  would  seem 
naturally  to  rest.  Once  dethrone  Humanity, 
regard  it  as  a  mere  local  incident  in  an  endless 
and  aimless  series  of  cosmical  changes,  and  you 
arrive  at  a  doctrine  which,  under  whatever  spe- 
cious name  it  may  be  veiled,  is  at  bottom  neither 
more  nor  less  than  Atheism.  On  its  metaphy- 
sical side  Atheism  is  the  denial  of  anything 
psychical  in  the  universe  outside  of  human 
consciousness ;  and  it  is  almost  inseparably 
associated  with  the  materialistic  interpretation 
of  human  consciousness  as  the  ephemeral  result 
of  a  fleeting  collocation  of  particles  of  matter. 
Viewed  upon  this  side,  it  is  easy  to  show  that 
Atheism  is  very  bad  metaphysics,  while  the 
materialism  which  goes  with  it  is  utterly  con- 
demned by  modern  science.^  But  our  feeling 
toward  Atheism  goes  much  deeper  than  the  mere 

*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  iv, 

4 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

recognition  of  it  as  philosophically  untrue. 
The  mood  in  which  we  condemn  it  is  not  at 
all  like  the  mood  in  which  we  reject  the  cor- 
puscular theory  of  light  or  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis's 
vagaries  on  the  subject  of  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics. We  are  wont  to  look  upon  Atheism 
with  unspeakable  horror  and  loathing.  Our 
moral  sense  revolts  against  it  no  less  than  our 
intelligence  ;  and  this  is  because,  on  its  prac- 
tical side.  Atheism  would  remove  Humanity 
from  its  peculiar  position  in  the  world,  and 
make  it  cast  in  its  lot  with  the  grass  that  withers 
and  the  beasts  that  perish  ;  and  thus  the  rich 
and  varied  life  of  the  universe,  in  all  the  ages 
of  its  wondrous  duration,  becomes  deprived  of 
any  such  element  of  purpose  as  can  make  it 
intelligible  to  us  or  appeal  to  our  moral  sym- 
pathies and  religious  aspirations. 

And  yet  the  first  result  of  some  of  the 
grandest  and  most  irrefragable  truths  of  mod- 
ern science,  when  newly  discovered  and  dimly 
comprehended,  has  been  to  make  it  appear  that 
Humanity  must  be  rudely  unseated  from  its 
throne  in  the  world  and  made  to  occupy  an 
utterly  subordinate  and  trivial  position  ;  and  it 
is  because  of  this  mistaken  view  of  their  import 
that  the  Church  has  so  often  and  so  bitterly 
opposed  the  teaching  of  such  truths.  With  the 
advent  of  the  Copernican  astronomy  the  funnel- 
shaped  Inferno,  the  steep  mountain  of  Purga- 

5 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

tory  crowned  with  its  terrestrial  paradise,  and 
those  concentric  spheres  of  Heaven  wherein 
beatified  saints  held  weird  and  subtle  converse, 
all  went  their  way  to  the  limbo  prepared  for 
the  childlike  fancies  of  untaught  minds,  whither 
Hades  and  Valhalla  had  gone  before  them.  In 
our  day  it  is  hard  to  realize  the  startling  effect 
of  the  discovery  that  Man  does  not  dwell  at 
the  centre  of  things,  but  is  the  denizen  of  an 
obscure  and  tiny  speck  of  cosmical  matter  quite 
invisible  amid  the  innumerable  throng  of  flam- 
ing suns  that  make  up  our  galaxy.  To  the 
contemporaries  of  Copernicus  the  new  theory 
seemed  to  strike  at  the  very  foundations  of 
Christian  theology.  In  a  universe  where  so 
much  had  been  made  without  discernible  re- 
ference to  Man,  what  became  of  that  elaborate 
scheme  of  salvation  which  seemed  to  rest  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  career  of  Humanity 
was  the  sole  object  of  God's  creative  forethought 
and  fostering  care  ?  When  we  bear  this  in  mind, 
we  see  how  natural  and  inevitable  it  was  that 
the  Church  should  persecute  such  men  as 
Galileo  and  Bruno.  At  the  same  time  it  is  in- 
structive to  observe  that,  while  the  Copernican 
astronomy  has  become  firmly  established  in 
spite  of  priestly  opposition,  the  foundations  of 
Christian  theology  have  not  been  shaken  there- 
by.   It  is  not  that  the  question  which  once  so 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

sorely  puzzled  men  has  ever  been  settled,  but 
that  it  has  been  outgrown.  The  speculative 
necessity  for  man's  occupying  the  largest  and 
most  central  spot  in  the  universe  is  no  longer 
felt.  It  is  recognized  as  a  primitive  and  childish 
notion.  With  our  larger  knowledge  we  see  that 
these  vast  and  fiery  suns  are  after  all  but  the 
Titan-like  servants  of  the  little  planets  which 
they  bear  with  them  in  their  flight  through  the 
abysses  of  space.  Out  from  the  awful  gaseous 
turmoil  of  the  central  mass  dart  those  ceaseless 
waves  of  gentle  radiance  that,  when  caught  upon 
the  surface  of  whirling  worlds  like  ours,  bring 
forth  the  endlessly  varied  forms  and  the  end- 
lessly complex  movements  that  make  up  what 
we  can  see  of  life.  And  as  when  God  revealed 
himself  to  his  ancient  prophet  He  came  not  in 
the  earthquake  or  the  tempest,  but  in  a  voice 
that  was  still  and  small,  so  that  divine  spark  the 
Soul,  as  it  takes  up  its  brief  abode  in  this  realm 
of  fleeting  phenomena,  chooses  not  the  central 
sun  where  elemental  forces  forever  blaze  and 
clash,  but  selects  an  outlying  terrestrial  nook 
where  seeds  may  germinate  in  silence,  and 
where  through  slow  fruition  the  mysterious 
forms  of  organic  life  may  come  to  take  shape 
and  thrive.  He  who  thus  looks  a  little  deeper 
into  the  secrets  of  nature  than  his  forefathers 
of  the  sixteenth    century    may    well    smile    at 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  quaint  conceit  that  man  cannot  be  the  ob- 
ject of  God's  care  unless  he  occupies  an  im- 
movable position  in  the  centre  of  the  stellar 
universe. 


II 


MAN'S   PLACE   IN   NATURE,   AS 
AFFECTED  BY  DARWINISM 

WHEN  the  Copernican  astronomy  was 
finally  established  through  the  dis- 
coveries of  Kepler  and  Newton,  it 
might  well  have  been  pronounced  the  greatest 
scientific  achievement  of  the  human  mind  ;  but 
it  was  still  more  than  that.  It  was  the  greatest 
revolution  that  had  ever  been  effected  in  Man's 
views  of  his  relations  to  the  universe  in  which 
he  lives,  and  of  which  he  is  —  at  least  during 
the  present  life  —  a  part.  During  the  nineteenth 
century,  however,  a  still  greater  revolution  has 
been  effected.  Not  only  has  Lyell  enlarged  our 
mental  horizon  in  time  as  much  as  Newton  en- 
larged it  in  space,  but  it  appears  that  through- 
out these  vast  stretches  of  time  and  space  with 
which  we  have  been  made  acquainted  there  are 
sundry  well-marked  changes  going  on.  Certain 
definite  paths  of  development  are  being  pur- 
sued ;  and  around  us  on  every  side  we  behold 
worlds,  organisms,  and  societies  in  divers  stages 
of  progress  or  decline.  Still  more,  as  we  exam- 
ine the  records  of  past  life  upon  our  globe,  and 

9 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

study  the  mutual  relations  of  the  living  things 
that  still  remain,  it  appears  that  the  higher 
forms  of  life  —  including  Man  himself — are  the 
modified  descendants  of  lower  forms.  Zoologi- 
cally speaking,  Man  can  no  longer  be  regarded 
as  a  creature  apart  by  himself  We  cannot  erect 
an  order  on  purpose  to  contain  him,  as  Cuvier 
tried  to  do ;  we  cannot  even  make  a  separate 
family  for  him.  Man  is  not  only  a  vertebrate, 
a  mammal,  and  a  primate,  but  he  belongs,  as  a 
genus,  to  the  catarrhine  family  of  apes.  And 
just  as  lions,  leopards,  and  lynxes  —  different 
genera  of  the  cat  family  —  are  descended  from 
a  common  stock  of  carnivora,  back  to  which  we 
may  also  trace  the  pedigrees  of  dogs,  hyaenas, 
bears,  and  seals  ;  so  the  various  genera  of  platyr- 
rhine  and  catarrhine  apes,  including  Man,  are 
doubtless  descended  from  a  common  stock  of 
primates,  back  to  which  we  may  also  trace  the 
converging  pedigrees  of  monkeys  and  lemurs, 
until  their  ancestry  becomes  indistinguishable 
from  that  of  rabbits  and  squirrels.  Such  is  the 
conclusion  to  which  the  scientific  world  has  come 
within  a  quarter  of  a  century  from  the  publi- 
cation of  Mr.  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species  ;  " 
and  there  is  no  more  reason  for  supposing  that 
this  conclusion  will  ever  be  gainsaid  than  for 
supposing  that  the  Copernican  astronomy  will 
some  time  be  overthrown  and  the  concentric 


lO 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

spheres  of  Dante's  heaven  reinstated  in  the 
minds  of  men. 

It  is  not  strange  that  this  theory  of  man's 
origin,  which  we  associate  mainly  with  the  name 
of  Mr.  Darwin,  should  be  to  many  people  very 
unwelcome.  It  is  fast  bringing  about  a  still 
greater  revolution  in  thought  than  that  which 
was  heralded  by  Copernicus  ;  and  it  naturally 
takes  some  time  for  the  various  portions  of 
one's  theory  of  things  to  become  adjusted,  one 
after  another,  to  so  vast  and  sweeping  a  change. 
From  many  quarters  the  cry  goes  up,  —  If  this 
be  true,  then  Man  is  at  length  cast  down  from 
his  high  position  in  the  world.  "  I  will  not  be 
called  a  mammal,  or  the  son  of  a  mammal  ! " 
once  exclaimed  an  acquaintance  of  mine  who 
perhaps  had  been  brought  up  by  hand.  Such 
expressions  of  feeling  are  crude,  but  the  feeling 
is  not  unjustifiable.  It  is  urged  that  if  man  is 
physically  akin  to  a  baboon,  as  pigs  are  akin  to 
horses,  and  cows  to  deer,  then  Humanity  can 
in  nowise  be  regarded  as  occupying  a  peculiar 
place  in  the  universe ;  it  becomes  a  mere  inci- 
dent in  an  endless  series  of  changes,  and  how 
can  we  say  that  the  same  process  of  evolution 
that  has  produced  mankind  may  not  by  and  by 
produce  something  far  more  perfect  ?  There 
was  a  time  when  huge  birdlike  reptiles  were  the 
lords  of  creation,  and  after  these  had  been  "  sealed 


II 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

within  the  iron  hills  "  there  came  successive  dy- 
nasties of  mammals  ;  and  as  the  iguanodon  gave 
place  to  the  great  Eocene  marsupials,  as  the  mas- 
todon and  the  sabre-toothed  lion  have  long  since 
vanished  from  the  scene,  so  may  not  Man  by 
and  by  disappear  to  make  way  for  some  higher 
creature,  and  so  on  forever?  In  such  case,  why 
should  we  regard  Man  as  in  any  higher  sense 
the  object  of  Divine  care  than  a  pig  ?  Still 
stronger  does  the  case  appear  when  we  remem- 
ber that  those  countless  adaptations  of  means 
to  ends  in  nature,  which  since  the  time  of  Vol- 
taire and  Paley  we  have  been  accustomed  to  cite 
as  evidences  of  creative  design,  have  received  at 
/  the  hands  of  Mr.  Darwin  a  very  different  in- 
terpretation. The  lobster's  powerful  claw,  the 
butterfly's  gorgeous  tints,  the  rose's  delicious 
fragrance,  the  architectural  instinct  of  the  bee, 
the  astonishing  structure  of  the  orchid,  are  no 
longer  explained  as  the  results  of  contrivance. 
That  simple  but  wasteful  process  of  survival  of 
the  fittest,  through  which  such  marvellous  things 
have  come  into  being,  has  little  about  it  that  is 
analogous  to  the  ingenuity  of  human  art.  The 
infinite  and  eternal  Power  which  is  thus  revealed 
in  the  physical  life  of  the  universe  seems  in 
nowise  akin  to  the  human  souL.  The  idea  of 
beneficent  purpose  seems  for  the  moment  to  be 
excluded  from  nature,  and  a  blind  process,  known 
as  Natural  Selection,  is  the  deity  that  slumbers 

12 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

not  nor  sleeps.  Reckless  of  good  and  evil,  it 
brings  forth  at  once  the  mother's  tender  love 
for  her  infant  and  the  horrible  teeth  of  the  rav- 
ening shark,  and  to  its  creative  indifference  the 
one  is  as  good  as  the  other. 

In  spite  of  these  appalling  arguments  the 
man  of  science,  urged  by  the  single-hearted 
purpose  to  ascertain  the  truth,  be  the  conse- 
quences what  they  may,  goes  quietly  on  and 
finds  that  the  terrible  theory  must  be  adopted ; 
the  fact  of  man's  consanguinity  with  dumb 
beasts  must  be  admitted.  In  reaching  this  con- 
clusion, the  man  of  science  reasons  upon  the 
physical  facts  within  his  reach,  applying  to 
them  the  same  principles  of  common-sense 
whereby  our  every-day  lives  are  successfully 
guided  ;  and  he  is  very  apt  to  smile  at  the 
methods  of  those  people  who,  taking  hold  of 
the  question  at  the  wrong  end,  begin  by  arguing 
about  all  manner  of  fancied  consequences.  For 
his  knowledge  of  the  history  of  human  think- 
ing assures  him  that  such  methods  have  through 
all  past  time  proved  barren  of  aught  save  strife, 
while  his  own  bold  yet  humble  method  is  the 
only  one  through  which  truth  has  ever  been 
elicited.  To  pursue  unflinchingly  the  methods 
of  science  requires  dauntless  courage  and  a  faith 
that  nothing  can  shake.  Such  courage  and  such 
loyalty  to  nature  brings  its  own  reward.  For 
when  once  the  formidable  theory  is  really  under- 

13 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

stood,  when  once  its  implications  are  properly 
unfolded,  it  is  seen  to  have  no  such  logical  con- 
sequences as  were  at  first  ascribed  to  it.  As  with 
the  Copernican  astronomy,  so  with  the  Dar- 
winian biology,  we  rise  to  a  higher  view  of  the 
workings  of  God  and  of  the  nature  of  Man 
than  was  ever  attainable  before.  So  far  from 
degrading  Humanity,  or  putting  it  on  a  level 
with  the  animal  world  in  general,  the  Darwin- 
ian theory  shows  us  distinctly  for  the  first  time 
how  the  creation  and  the  perfecting  of  Man  is 
\/  the  goal  toward  which  Nature's  work  has  all  the 
while  been  tending.  It  enlarges  tenfold  the 
significance  of  human  life,  places  it  upon  even 
a  loftier  eminence  than  poets  or  prophets  have 
imagined,  and  makes  it  seem  more  than  ever 
the  chief  object  of  that  creative  activity  which  is 
manifested  in  the  physical  universe. 


H 


Ill 


ON     THE     EARTH     THERE     WILL 
NEVER  BE  A  HIGHER  CREATURE 

THAN    MAN 

IN  elucidating  these  points,  we  may  fitly  be- 
gin by  considering  the  question  as  to  the 
possibility  of  the  evolution  of  any  higher 
creature  than  Man,  to  whom  the  dominion  over 
this  earth  shall  pass.  The  question  will  best  be 
answered  by  turning  back  and  observing  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  features  connected  with 
the  origin  of  Man  and  with  his  superiority  over 
other  animals.  And  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that 
we  are  not  now  about  to  wander  through  the 
regions  of  unconditional  possibility.  We  are 
not  dealing  with  vague  general  notions  of  de- 
velopment, but  with  the  scientific  Darwinian 
theory,  which  alleges  development  only  as  the 
result  of  certain  rigorously  defined  agencies. 
The  chief  among  these  agencies  is  Natural  Se- 
lection. It  has  again  and  again  been  illustrated 
how  by  the  cumulative  selection  and  inheritance 
of  slight  physical  variations  generic  differences, 
like  those  between  the  tiger  and  the  leopard, 
or  the  cow  and  the  antelope,  at  length  arise; 

15 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

and  the  guiding  principle  in  the  accumulation 
of  slight  physical  differences  has  been  the  wel- 
fare of  the  species.  The  variant  forms  on  either 
side  have  survived  while  the  constant  forms  have 
perished,  so  that  the  lines  of  demarcation  be- 
tween allied  species  have  grown  more  and  more 
distinct,  and  it  is  usually  only  by  going  back  to 
fossil  ages  that  we  can  supply  the  missing  links 
of  continuity.  In  the  desperate  struggle  for  ex- 
istence no  peculiarity,  physical  or  psychical, 
however  slight,  has  been  too  insignificant  for 
natural  selection  to  seize  and  enhance  ;  and  the 
myriad  fantastic  forms  and  hues  of  animal  and 
vegetal  life  illustrate  the  seeming  capricious- 
ness  of  its  workings.  Psychical  variations  have 
never  been  unimportant  since  the  appearance 
of  the  first  faint  pigment-spot  which  by  and  by 
was  to  translate  touch  into  vision,  as  it  devel- 
oped into  the  lenses  and  humours  of  the  eye.^ 
Special  organs  of  sense  and  the  lower  grades  of 
perception  and  judgment  were  slowly  developed 
♦■hrough  countless  ages,  in  company  with  purely 
physical  variations  of  shape  of  foot,  or  length 
of  neck,  or  complexity  of  stomach,  or  thickness 
of  hide.  At  length  there  came  a  wonderful  mo- 
ment—  silent  and  unnoticed,  as  are  the  begin- 
nings of  all  great  revolutions.  Silent  and  unno- 
ticed, even  as  the  day  of  the  Lord  which  cometh 
like  a  thief  in  the  night,  there  arrived  that  won- 
*  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xiv. 

j6 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

derful  moment  at  which  psychical  changes  be- 
gan to  be  of  more  use  than  physical  changes 
to  the  brute  ancestor  of  Man.  Through  fur- 
ther ages  of  ceaseless  struggle  the  profitable  va- 
riations in  this  creature  occurred  oftener  and 
oftener  in  the  brain,  and  less  often  in  other 
parts  of  the  organism,  until  by  and  by  the  size 
of  his  brain  had  been  doubled  and  its  complexity 
of  structure  increased  a  thousand-fold,  while  in 
other  respects  his  appearance  was  not  so  very 
different  from  that  of  his  brother  apes.^  Along 
with  this  growth  of  the  brain,  the  complete  as- 
sumption of  the  upright  posture,  enabling  the 
hands  to  be  devoted  entirely  to  prehension  and 
thus  relieving  the  jaws  of  that  part  of  their  work, 
has  cooperated  in  producing  that  peculiar  con- 
tour of  head  and  face  which  is  the  chief  distin- 
guishing mark  of  physical  Man.  These  slight 
anatomical  changes  derive  their  importance  en- 
tirely from  the  prodigious  intellectual  changes 
in  connection  with  which  they  have  been  pro- 
duced ;  and  these  intellectual  changes  have 
been  accumulated  until  the  distance,  psychically 
speaking,  between  civilized  man  and  the  ape  is 
so  great  as  to  dwarf  in  comparison  all  that  had 
been  achieved  in  the  process  of  evolution  down 
to  the  time  of  our  half-human  ancestor's  first 
appearance.    No  fact  in  nature  is  fraught  with 

^   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xxi.  ;   Dar- 
toinism,  and  Other  Essays,  iii. 

17 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

deeper  meaning  than  this  two-sided  fact  of  the 
extreme  physical  similarity  and  enormous  psy- 
chical divergence  between  Man  and  the  group 
of  animals  to  which  he  traces  his  pedigree.  It 
shows  that  when  Humanity  began  to  be  evolved 
an  entirely  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
universe  was  opened.  Henceforth  the  life  of 
the  nascent  soul  came  to  be  first  in  importance, 
and  the  bodily  life  became  subordinated  to  it. 
Henceforth  it  appeared  that,  in  this  direction 
at  least,  the  process  of  zoological  change  had 
come  to  an  end,  and  a  process  of  psychological 
change  was  to  take  its  place.  Henceforth  along 
this  supreme  line  of  generation  there  was  to  be 
no  further  evolution  of  new  species  through 
physical  variation,  but  through  the  accumula- 
tion of  psychical  variations  one  particular  species 
was  to  be  indefinitely  perfected  and  raised  to  a 
totally  different  plane  from  that  on  which  all 
life  had  hitherto  existed.  Henceforth,  in  short, 
the  dominant  aspect  of  evolution  was  to  be  not 
the  genesis  of  species,  but  the  progress  of  Civ- 
ilization. 

As  we  thoroughly  grasp  the  meaning  of  all 
this,  we  see  that  upon  the  Darwinian  theory  it 
is  impossible  that  any  creature  zoologically  dis- 
tinct from  Man  and  superior  to  him  should  ever 
at  any  future  time  exist  upon  the  earth.  In  the 
regions  of  unconditional  possibility  it  is  open  to 

i8 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

any  one  to  argue,  if  he  chooses,  that  such  a  crea- 
ture may  come  to  exist ;  but  the  Darwinian  the- 
ory is  utterly  opposed  to  any  such  conclusion. 
According  to  Darwinism,  the  creation  of  Man 
is  still  the  goal  toward  which  Nature  tended 
from  the  beginning.  Not  the  production  of 
any  higher  creature,  but  the  perfecting  of  Hu- 
manity, is  to  be  the  glorious  consummation  of 
Nature's  long  and  tedious  work.  Thus  we  sud- 
denly arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  Man  seems 
now,  much  more  clearly  than  ever,  the  chief 
among  God's  creatures.  On  the  primitive  bar- 
baric theory,  which  Mr.  Darwin  has  swept  away, 
Man  was  suddenly  flung  into  the  world  by  the 
miraculous  act  of  some  unseen  and  incalculable 
Power  acting  from  without ;  and  whatever  the- 
ology might  suppose,  no  scientific  reason  could 
be  alleged  why  the  same  incalculable  Power 
might  not  at  some  future  moment,  by  a  similar 
miracle,  thrust  upon  the  scene  some  mightier 
creature  in  whose  presence  Man  would  become 
like  a  sorry  beast  of  burden.  But  he  who  has 
mastered  the  Darwinian  theory,  he  who  recog- 
nizes the  slow  and  subtle  process  of  evolution 
as  the  way  in  which  God  makes  things  come  to 
pass,  must  take  a  far  higher  view.  He  sees  that 
in  the  deadly  struggle  for  existence  which  has 
raged  throughout  countless  aeons  of  time,  the 
whole  creation  has  been  groaning  and  travailing 


19 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

together  in  order  to  bring  forth  that  last  con- 
summate specimen  of  God's  handiwork,  the 
Human  Soul. 

To  the  creature  thus  produced  through  a 
change  in  the  direction  in  which  natural  selection 
has  worked,  the  earth  and  most  of  its  living 
things  have  become  gradually  subordinated.  In 
all  the  classes  of  the  animal  and  vegetal  worlds 
many  ancient  species  have  become  extinct,  and 
many  modern  species  have  come  into  being, 
through  the  unchecked  working  of  natural  se- 
lection, since  Man  became  distinctively  human. 
But  in  this  respect  a  change  has  long  been  com- 
ing over  the  face  of  nature.  The  destinies  of  all 
other  living  things  are  more  and  more  depend- 
ent upon  the  will  of  Man.  It  rests  with  him 
to  determine,  to  a  great  degree,  what  plants  and 
animals  shall  remain  upon  the  earth  and  what 
shall  be  swept  from  its  surface.  By  uncon- 
sciously imitating  the  selective  processes  of  Na- 
ture, he  long  ago  wrought  many  wild  species 
into  forms  subservient  to  his  needs.  He  has 
created  new  varieties  of  fruit  and  flower  and  ce- 
real grass,  and  has  reared  new  breeds  of  animals 
to  aid  him  in  the  work  of  civilization  ;  until  at 
length  he  is  beginning  to  acquire  a  mastery  over 
mechanical  and  molecular  and  chemical  forces 
which  is  doubtless  destined  in  the  future  to 
achieve  marvellous  results  whereof  to-day  we 
little  dream.    Natural  selection  itself  will  by  and 

20 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

by  occupy  a  subordinate  place  in  comparison 
with  selection  by  Man,  whose  appearance  on  the 
earth  is  thus  seen  more  clearly  than  ever  to  have 
opened  an  entirely  new  chapter  in  the  mysterious 
history  of  creation. 


21 


IV 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  INFANCY 

BUT  before  we  can  fully  understand  the 
exalted  position  which  the  Darwinian 
theory  assigns  to  Man,  another  point 
demands  consideration.  The  natural  selection 
of  psychical  peculiarities  does  not  alone  account 
for  the  origin  of  Man,  or  explain  his  most  sig- 
nal difference  from  all  other  animals.  That 
difference  is  unquestionably  a  difference  in  kind, 
but  in  saying  this  one  must  guard  against  mis- 
understanding. Not  only  in  the  world  of  or- 
ganic life,  but  throughout  the  known  universe, 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  regards  differences  in 
kind  as  due  to  the  gradual  accumulation  of 
differences  in  degree.  To  cite  a  very  simple  case, 
what  differences  of  kind  can  be  more  striking 
than  the  differences  between  a  nebula,  a  sun,  a 
planet  like  the  earth,  and  a  planet  like  our  moon  ? 
Yet  these  things  are  simply  examples  of  cos- 
mical  matter  at  four  different  stages  of  cooling. 
The  physical  differences  between  steam,  water, 
and  ice  afford  a  more  familiar  example.  In  the 
organic  world  the  perpetual  modification  of 
structures  that  has  been  effected  through  natural 

11 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

selection  exhibits  countless  instances  of  differ- 
ences in  kind  which  have  risen  from  the  accu- 
mulation of  differences  in  degree.  No  one  would 
hesitate  to  call  a  horse's  hoof  different  in  kind 
from  a  cat's  paw ;  and  yet  the  horse's  lower  leg 
and  hoof  are  undoubtedly  developed  from  a 
five-toed  paw.  The  most  signal  differences  in 
kind  are  wont  to  arise  when  organs  originally 
developed  for  a  certain  purpose  come  to  be  ap- 
plied to  a  very  different  purpose,  as  that  change 
of  the  fish's  air-bladder  into  a  lung  which  ac- 
companied the  first  development  of  land  verte- 
brates. But  still  greater  becomes  the  revolution 
when  a  certain  process  goes  on  until  it  sets  going 
a  number  of  other  processes,  unlocking  series 
after  series  of  causal  agencies  until  a  vast  and 
complicated  result  is  reached,  such  as  could  by 
no  possibility  have  been  foreseen.  The  creation 
of  Man  was  one  of  these  vast  and  complicated 
results  due  to  the  unlocking  of  various  series  of 
causal  agencies  ;  and  it  was  the  beginning  of  a 
deeper  and  mightier  difference  in  kind  than  any 
that  slowly-evolving  Nature  had  yet  witnessed. 
I  have  indicated,  as  the  moment  at  which  the 
creation  of  mankind  began,  the  moment  when 
psychical  variations  became  of  so  much  more 
use  to  our  ancestors  than  physical  variations 
that  they  were  seized  and  enhanced  by  natural 
selection,  to  the  comparative  neglect  of  the 
latter.    Increase  of  intellectual  capacity,  in  con- 

23 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

nection  with  the  developing  brain  of  a  single 
race  of  creatures,  now  became  the  chief  work  of 
natural  selection  in  originating  Man ;  and  this, 
I  say,  was  the  opening  of  a  new  chapter,  the 
last  and  most  wonderful  chapter,  in  the  history 
of  creation.  But  the  increasing  intelligence  and 
enlarged  experience  of  half-human  man  now  set 
in  motion  a  new  series  of  changes  which  greatly 
complicated  the  matter.  In  order  to  understand 
these  changes,  we  must  consider  for  a  moment 
one  very  important  characteristic  of  developing 
intelligence. 

The  simplest  actions  in  which  the  nervous 
system  is  concerned  are  what  we  call  reflex  ac- 
tions.   All  the  visceral  actions  which  keep  us 
alive  from  moment  to  moment,  the  movements 
of  the  heart  and  lungs,  the  contractions  of  arte- 
ries, the  secretions  of  glands,  the  digestive  opera- 
tions of  the  stomach  and  liver,  belong  to  the 
class  of  reflex  actions.    Throughout  the  animal 
world  these  acts  are  repeated,  with  little  or  no 
variation,  from  birth  until  death,  and  the  tend- 
ency to  perform  them  is  completely  organized 
in  the  nervous  system  before  birth.   Every  ani- 
mal breathes  and  digests  as  well  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  life  as  he  ever  does.    Contact  with 
air  and  food  is  all  that  is  needed,  and  there  is 
nothing  to  be  learned.     These  actions,  though 
they  are  performed  by  the  nervous  system,  we 
do  not  class  as  psychical,  because  they  are  nearly 
24 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

or  quite  unattended  by  consciousness.  The  psy- 
chical Hfe  of  the  lowest  animals  consists  of  a  few 
simple  acts  directed  toward  the  securing  of  food 
and  the  avoidance  of  danger,  and  these  acts  we 
are  in  the  habit  of  classing  as  instinctive.  They 
are  so  simple,  so  few,  and  so  often  repeated, 
that  the  tendency  to  perform  them  is  completely 
organized  in  the  nervous  system  before  birth. 
The  animal  takes  care  of  himself  as  soon  as  he 
begins  to  live.  He  has  nothing  to  learn,  and 
his  career  is  a  simple  repetition  of  the  careers 
of  countless  ancestors.  With  him  heredity  is 
everything,  and  his  individual  experience  is  next 
to  nothing. 

As  we  ascend  the  animal  scale  till  we  come  to 
the  higher  birds  and  mammals,  we  find  a  very 
interesting  and  remarkable  change  beginning. 
The  general  increase  of  intelligence  involves  an 
increasing  variety  and  complication  of  experi- 
ences. The  acts  which  the  animal  performs  in 
the  course  of  its  life  become  far  more  numer- 
ous, far  more  various,  and  far  more  complex. 
They  are  therefore  severally  repeated  with  less 
frequency  in  the  lifetime  of  each  individual. 
Consequently  the  tendency  to  perform  them  is 
not  completely  organized  in  the  nervous  system 
of  the  offspring  before  birth.  The  short  period 
of  antenatal  existence  does  not  afford  time 
enough  for  the  organization  of  so  many  and 
such  complex  habitudes  and   capacities.    The 

25 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

process  which  in  the  lower  animals  is  completed 
before  birth  is  in  the  higher  animals  left  to 
be  completed  after  birth.  When  the  creature 
begins  its  Hfe  it  is  not  completely  organized. 
Instead  of  the  power  of  doing  all  the  things 
which  its  parents  did,  it  starts  with  the  power  of 
doing  only  some  few  of  them  ;  for  the  rest  it  has 
only  latent  capacities  which  need  to  be  brought 
out  by  its  individual  experience  after  birth.  In 
other  words,  it  begins  its  separate  Hfe  not  as  a 
matured  creature,  but  as  an  infant  which  needs 
for  a  time  to  be  watched  and  helped. 


26 


THE   DAWNING   OF   CONSCIOUS- 
NESS 

HERE  we  arrive  at  one  of  the  most  won- 
derful moments  in  the  history  of  crea- 
tion,—  the  moment  of  the  first  faint 
dawning  of  consciousness,  the  foreshadowing  of 
the  true  hfe  of  the  soul.  Whence  came  the  soul 
we  no  more  know  than  we  know  whence  came 
the  universe.  The  primal  origin  of  conscious- 
ness is  hidden  in  the  depths  of  the  bygone  eter- 
nity. That  it  cannot  possibly  be  the  product  of 
any  cunning  arrangement  of  material  particles  is 
demonstrated  beyond  peradventure  by  what  we 
now  know  of  the  correlation  of  physical  forces.^ 
The  Platonic  view  of  the  soul,  as  a  spiritual  sub- 
stance, an  effluence  from  Godhood,  which  under 
certain  conditions  becomes  incarnated  in  perish- 
able forms  of  matter,  is  doubtless  the  view  most 
consonant  with  the  present  state  of  our  know- 
ledge. Yet  while  we  know  not  the  primal  origin 
of  the  soul,  we  have  learned  something  with  re- 
gard to  the  conditions  under  which  it  has  become 

^   The  Unseen  World,  and  other    Essays,  i.  ;   Darwinism, 
and  other  Essays,  v.  ;  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist,  x.,  xiii. 

27 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

incarnated  in  material  forms.  Modern  psycho- 
logy has  something  to  say  about  the  dawning  of 
conscious  life  in  the  animal  world.  Reflex  action 
is  unaccompanied  by  consciousness.  The  ner- 
vous actions  which  regulate  the  movements  of 
the  viscera  go  on  without  our  knowledge ;  we 
learn  of  their  existence  only  by  study,  as  we 
learn  of  facts  in  outward  nature.  If  you  tickle 
the  foot  of  a  person  asleep,  and  the  foot  is  with- 
drawn by  simple  reflex  action,  the  sleeper  is  un- 
conscious alike  of  the  irritation  and  of  the 
movement,  even  as  the  decapitated  frog  is  un- 
conscious when  a  drop  of  nitric  acid  falls  on  his 
back  and  he  lifts  up  a  leg  and  rubs  the  place. 
In  like  manner  the  reflex  movements  which 
make  up  the  life  of  the  lowest  animals  are  doubt- 
less quite  unconscious,  even  when  in  their  gen- 
eral character  they  simulate  conscious  actions, 
as  they  often  do.  In  the  case  of  such  creatures, 
the  famous  hypothesis  of  Descartes,  that  animals 
are  automata,  is  doubtless  mainly  correct.  In 
the  case  of  instincts  also,  where  the  instinctive 
actions  are  completely  organized  before  birth, 
and  are  repeated  without  variation  during  the 
whole  lifetime  of  the  individual,  there  is  proba- 
bly little  if  any  consciousness.  It  is  an  essential 
prerequisite  of  consciousness  that  there  should 
be  a  period  of  delay  or  tension  between  the  re- 
ceipt of  an  impression  and  the  determination  of 
the  consequent  movement.  Diminish  this  period 

28 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

of  delay  and  you  diminish  the  vividness  of  con- 
sciousness. A  famiUar  example  will  make  this 
clear.  When  you  are  learning  to  play  a  new 
piece  of  music  on  the  piano,  especially  if  you 
do  not  read  music  rapidly,  you  are  intensely 
conscious  of  each  group  of  notes  on  the  page, 
and  of  each  group  of  keys  that  you  strike,  and 
of  the  relations  of  the  one  to  the  other.  But 
when  you  have  learned  the  piece  by  heart,  you 
think  nothing  of  either  notes  or  keys,  but  play 
automatically  while  your  attention  is  concen- 
trated upon  the  artistic  character  of  the  music. 
If  somebody  thoughtlessly  interrupts  you  with 
a  question  about  Egyptian  politics,  you  go  on 
playing  while  you  answer  him  politely.  That  is, 
where  you  had  at  first  to  make  a  conscious  act 
of  volition  for  each  movement,  the  whole  group 
of  movements  has  now  become  automatic,  and 
volition  is  only  concerned  in  setting  the  process 
going.  As  the  delay  involved  in  the  perception 
and  the  movement  disappears,  so  does  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  perception  and  the  movement 
tend  to  disappear.  Consciousness  implies  per- 
petual discrimination,  or  the  recognition  of  like- 
nesses and  differences,  and  this  is  impossible 
unless  impressions  persist  long  enough  to  be 
compared  with  one  another.  The  physical 
organs  in  connection  with  whose  activity  con- 
sciousness is  manifested  are  the  upper  and  outer 
parts  of  the  brain,  —  the  cerebrum  and  cerebel- 

29 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

lum.  These  organs  never  receive  impressions 
directly  from  the  outside  world,  but  only  from 
lower  nerve-centres,  such  as  the  spinal  cord,  the 
medulla,  the  optic  lobes,  and  other  special  cen- 
tres of  sensation.  The  impressions  received  by 
the  cerebrum  and  cerebellum  are  waves  of  mole- 
cular disturbance  sent  up  along  centripetal  nerves 
from  the  lower  centres,  and  presently  drafted  off 
along  centrifugal  nerves  back  to  the  lower  cen- 
tres, thus  causing  the  myriad  movements  which 
make  up  our  active  life.  Now  there  is  no  con- 
sciousness except  when  molecular  disturbance  is 
generated  in  the  cerebrum  and  cerebellum  faster 
than  it  can  be  drafted  off  to  the  lower  centres.* 
It  is  the  surplus  of  molecular  disturbance  re- 
maining in  the  cerebrum  and  cerebellum,  and 
reflected  back  and  forth  among  the  cells  and 
fibres  of  which  these  highest  centres  are  com- 
posed, that  affords  the  physical  condition  for 
the  manifestation  of  consciousness.  Memory, 
emotion,  reason,  and  volition  begin  with  this 
retention  of  a  surplus  of  molecular  motion  in 
the  highest  centres.  As  we  survey  the  vertebrate 
sub-kingdom  of  animals,  we  find  that  as  this 
surplus  increases,  the  surface  of  the  highest  cen- 
tres increases  in  area.  In  the  lowest  vertebrate 
animal,  the  amphioxus,  the  cerebrum  and  cere- 
bellum do  not  exist  at  all.  In  fishes  we  begin 
to  find  them,  but  they  are  much  smaller  than 

*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xvi. 
30 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

the  optic  lobes.  In  such  a  highly  organized  fish 
as  the  halibut,  which  weighs  about  as  much  as 
an  average-sized  man,  the  cerebrum  is  smaller 
than  a  melon  seed.  Continuing  to  grow  by- 
adding  concentric  layers  at  the  surface,  the  cere- 
brum and  cerebellum  become  much  larger  in 
birds  and  lower  mammals,  gradually  covering 
up  the  optic  lobes.  As  we  pass  to  higher  mam- 
malian forms,  the  growth  of  the  cerebrum  be- 
comes most  conspicuous,  until  it  extends  back- 
wards so  far  as  to  cover  up  the  cerebellum,  whose 
functions  are  limited  to  the  conscious  adjustment 
of  muscular  movements.  In  the  higher  apes  the 
cerebrum  begins  to  extend  itself  forwards,  and 
this  goes  on  in  the  human  race.  The  cranial 
capacity  of  the  European  exceeds  that  of  the 
Australian  by  forty  cubic  inches,  or  nearly  four 
times  as  much  as  that  by  which  the  Australian 
exceeds  the  gorilla ;  and  the  expansion  is  almost 
entirely  in  the  upper  and  anterior  portions.  But 
the  increase  of  the  cerebral  surface  is  shown  not 
only  in  the  general  size  of  the  organ,  but  to  a 
still  greater  extent  in  the  irregular  creasing  and 
furrowing  of  the  surface.  This  creasing  and 
furrowing  begins  to  occur  in  the  higher  mam- 
mals, and  in  civilized  man  it  is  carried  to  an 
astonishing  extent.  The  amount  of  intelligence 
is  correlated  with  the  number,  the  depth,  and 
the  irregularity  of  the  furrows.  A  cat's  brain 
has  a  few  symmetrical   creases.    In  an  ape  the 

3* 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

creases  are  deepened  into  slight  furrows,  and 
they  run  irregularly,  somewhat  like  the  lines  in 
the  palm  of  your  hand.  With  age  and  expe- 
rience the  furrows  grow  deeper  and  more  sinuous, 
and  new  ones  appear ;  and  in  man  these  phe- 
nomena come  to  have  great  significance.  The 
cerebral  surface  of  a  human  infant  is  like  that 
of  an  ape.  In  an  adult  savage,  or  in  a  European 
peasant,  the  furrowing  is  somewhat  marked  and 
complicated.  In  the  brain  of  a  great  scholar, 
the  furrows  are  very  deep  and  crooked,  and 
hundreds  of  creases  appear  which  are  not  found 
at  all  in  the  brains  of  ordinary  men.  In  other 
words,  the  cerebral  surface  of  such  a  man,  the 
seat  of  conscious  mental  life,  has  become  enor- 
mously enlarged  in  area  ;  and  we  must  further 
observe  that  it  goes  on  enlarging  in  some  cases 
into  extreme  old  age.^ 

Putting  all  these  facts  together,  it  becomes 
plain  that  in  the  lowest  animals,  whose  lives 
consist  of  sundry  reflex  actions  monotonously 
repeated  from  generation  to  generation,  there 
can  be  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  of  what  we 
know  as  consciousness.  It  is  only  when  the  life 
becomes  more  complicated  and  various,  so  that 
reflex  action  can  no  longer  determine  all  its 
movements  and  the  higher  nerve  centres  begin 
to  be  evolved,  that  the  dawning  of  conscious- 
ness is  reached.  But  with  the  growth  of  the 
*  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xvi. 
32 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

higher  centres  the  capacities  of  action  become 
so  various  and  indeterminate  that  definite  direc- 
tion is  not  given  to  them  until  after  birth.  The 
creature  begins  life  as  an  infant,  with  its  partially- 
developed  cerebrum  representing  capabilities 
which  it  is  left  for  its  individual  experience  to 
bring  forth  and  modify. 


33 


VI 


LENGTHENING  OF  INFANCY,  AND 

CONCOMITANT  INCREASE  OF 

BRAIN-SURFACE 

THE  first  appearance  of  infancy  in  the 
animal  world  thus  heralded  the  new 
era  which  was  to  be  crowned  by  the 
development  of  Man.  With  the  beginnings  of 
infancy  there  came  the  first  dawning  of  a  con- 
scious life  similar  in  nature  to  the  conscious  life 
of  human  beings,  and  there  came,  moreover,  on 
the  part  of  parents,  the  beginning  of  feelings 
and  actions  not  purely  self-regarding.  But  still 
more,  the  period  of  infancy  was  a  period  of 
plasticity.  The  career  of  each  individual  being 
no  longer  wholly  predetermined  by  the  careers 
of  its  ancestors,  it  began  to  become  teachable. 
Individuality  of  character  also  became  possible 
at  the  same  time,  and  for  the  same  reason.  All 
birds  and  mammals  which  take  care  of  their 
young  are  teachable,  though  in  very  various 
degrees,  and  all  in  like  manner  show  individ- 
ual peculiarities  of  disposition,  though  in  most 
cases  these  are  slight  and  inconspicuous.  In 
dogs,  horses,  and  apes  there  is  marked  teach- 

34 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

ableness,  and  there  are  also  marked  differences 
in  individual  character. 

But  in  the  non-human  animal  world  all  these 
phenomena  are  but  slightly  developed.  They 
are  but  the  dim  adumbrations  of  what  was  by 
and  by  to  bloom  forth  in  the  human  race.  They 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  served  as  a  pro- 
phecy of  the  revolution  that  was  to  come.  One 
generation  of  dumb  beasts  is  after  all  very  like 
another,  and  from  studying  the  careers  of  the 
mastodon,  the  hipparion,  the  sabre-toothed  lion, 
or  even  the  dryopithecus,  an  observer  in  the 
Miocene  age  could  never  have  foreseen  the 
possibility  of  a  creature  endowed  with  such  a 
boundless  capacity  of  progress  as  the  modern 
Man.  Nevertheless,  however  dimly  suggestive 
was  this  group  of  phenomena,  it  contained  the 
germ  of  all  that  is  preeminent  in  humanity.  In 
the  direct  line  of  our  ancestry  it  only  needed 
that  the  period  of  infancy  should  be  sufficiently 
prolonged,  in  order  that  a  creature  should  at 
length  appear,  endowed  with  the  teachableness, 
the  individuality,  and  the  capacity  for  progress 
which  are  the  peculiar  prerogatives  of  fully  de- 
veloped Man.^  In  this  direct  line  the  manlike 
apes  of  Africa  and  the  Indian  Archipelago  have 
advanced  far  beyond  the  mammalian  world  in 
general.    Along  with  a  cerebral  surface,  and  an 

*  Darwinism,  and  other  Essays,  iii.;  Excursions  of  an  Evo- 
lutionist, xii. 

35 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

accompanying  intelligence,  far  greater  than  that 
of  other  mammals,  these  tailless  apes  begin  life 
as  helpless  babies,  and  are  unable  to  walk,  to 
feed  themselves,  or  to  grasp  objects  with  pre- 
cision until  they  are  two  or  three  months  old. 
These  apes  have  thus  advanced  a  little  way  upon 
the  peculiar  road  which  our  half-human  fore- 
fathers began  to  travel  as  soon  as  psychical  va- 
riations came  to  be  of  more  use  to  the  species 
than  variations  in  bodily  structure.  The  gulf 
by  which  the  lowest  known  man  is  separated 
from  the  highest  known  ape  consists  in  the 
great  increase  of  his  cerebral  surface,  with  the 
accompanying  intelligence,  and  in  the  very  long 
duration  of  his  infancy.  These  two  things  have 
gone  hand  in  hand.  The  increase  of  cerebral 
surface,  due  to  the  working  of  natural  selection 
in  this  direction  alone,  has  entailed  a  vast  in- 
crease in  the  amount  of  cerebral  organization 
that  must  be  left  to  be  completed  after  birth, 
and  thus  has  prolonged  the  period  of  infancy. 
And  conversely  the  prolonging  of  the  plastic 
period  of  infancy,  entailing  a  vast  increase  in 
teachableness  and  versatility,  has  contributed  to 
the  further  enlargement  of  the  cerebral  surface. 
The  mutual  reaction  of  these  two  groups  of 
facts  must  have  gone  on  for  an  enormous  length 
of  time  since  man  began  thus  diverging  from  his 
simian  brethren.  It  is  not  likely  that  less  than 
a  million  years  have  elapsed  since  the  first  page 

36 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

of  this  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  creation 
was  opened  :  it  is  probable  that  the  time  has 
been  much  longer.  In  comparison  with  such  a 
period,  the  whole  recorded  duration  of  human 
history  shrinks  into  nothingness.  The  pyramids 
of  Egypt  seem  like  things  of  yesterday  when 
we  think  of  the  Cave-Men  of  western  Europe 
in  the  glacial  period,  who  scratched  pictures  of 
mammoths  on  pieces  of  reindeer  antler  with  a 
bit  of  pointed  flint.  Yet  during  an  entire  geo- 
logic aeon  before  these  Cave-Men  appeared  on 
the  scene,  "  a  being  erect  upon  two  legs,"  if  we 
may  quote  from  Serjeant  Buzfuz,  "  and  wearing 
the  outward  semblance  of  a  man  and  not  of  a 
monster,"  wandered  hither  and  thither  over  the 
face  of  the  earth,  setting  his  mark  upon  it  as 
no  other  creature  yet  had  done,  leaving  behind 
him  innumerable  telltale  remnants  of  his  fierce 
and  squalid  existence,  yet  too  scantily  endowed 
with  wit  to  make  any  written  disclosure  of  his 
thoughts  and  deeds.  If  the  physiological  annals 
of  that  long  and  weary  time  could  now  be  un- 
rolled before  us,  the  principal  fact  which  we 
should  discern,  dominating  all  other  facts  in 
interest  and  significance,  would  be  that  mutual 
reaction  between  increase  of  cerebral  surface  and 
lengthening  of  babyhood  which  I  have  here 
described. 

Thus  through  the   simple  continuance  and 
interaction  of  processes  that  began  far  back  in 

37 

83927 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  world  of  warm-blooded  animals,  we  get  at 
last  a  creature  essentially  different  from  all 
others.  Through  the  complication  of  effects  the 
heaping  up  of  minute  differences  in  degree  has 
ended  in  bringing  forth  a  difference  in  kind. 
In  the  human  organism  physical  variation  has 
well-nigh  stopped,  or  is  confined  to  insignificant 
features,  save  in  the  gray  surface  of  the  cere- 
brum. The  work  of  cerebral  organization  is 
chiefly  completed  after  birth,  as  we  see  by  con- 
trasting the  smooth  apelike  brain-surface  of 
the  new-born  child  with  the  deeply-furrowed 
and  myriad-seamed  surface  of  the  adult  civil- 
ized brain.  The  plastic  period  of  adolescence, 
lengthened  in  civilized  man  until  it  has  come 
to  cover  more  than  one  third  of  his  lifetime,  is 
thus  the  guaranty  of  his  boundless  progressive- 
ness.  Inherited  tendencies  and  aptitudes  still 
form  the  foundations  of  character  ;  but  individ- 
ual experience  has  come  to  count  as  an  enor- 
mous factor  in  modifying  the  career  of  mankind 
from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  the  difference  between  man 
and  all  other  hving  creatures,  in  respect  of 
teachableness,  progressiveness,  and  individuality 
of  character,  surpasses  all  other  differences  of 
kind  that  are  known  to  exist  in  the  universe. 


38 


VII 

CHANGE  IN  THE  DIRECTION  OF 
THE  WORKING  OF  NATURAL 
SELECTION 

IN  the  fresh  light  which  these  considerations 
throw  upon  the  problem  of  man's  origin, 
we  can  now  see  more  clearly  than  ever 
how  great  a  revolution  was  inaugurated  when 
natural  selection  began  to  confine  its  operations 
to  the  surface  of  the  cerebrum.  Among  the 
older  incidents  in  the  evolution  of  organic  life, 
the  changes  were  very  wonderful  which  out  of 
the  pectoral  fin  of  a  fish  developed  the  jointed 
fore-limb  of  the  mammal  with  its  five-toed  paw, 
and  thence  through  much  slighter  variation 
brought  forth  the  human  arm  with  its  delicate 
and  crafty  hand.  More  wondrous  still  were  the 
phases  of  change  through  which  the  rudimentary 
pigment-spot  of  the  worm,  by  the  development 
and  differentiation  of  successive  layers,  gave 
place  to  the  variously-constructed  eyes  of  in- 
sects, mollusks,  and  vertebrates.  The  day  for 
creative  work  of  this  sort  has  probably  gone 
by,  as  the  day  for  the  evolution  of  annulose 
segments  and  vertebrate  skeletons  has  gone  by, 

39 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

—  on  our  planet,  at  least.    In  the  line  of  our 
own  development,  all  work  of  this  kind  stopped 
long  ago,  to  be  replaced  by  different  methods. 
As  an  optical   instrument,  the  eye  had  well- 
nigh  reached  extreme  perfection  in  many  a  bird 
and  mammal  ages  before  man's  beginnings  ;  and 
the  essential  features  of  the  human  hand  existed 
already  in  the  hands  of  Miocene  apes.    But  dif- 
ferent methods  came   in  when   human  intelli- 
gence appeared  upon  the  scene.   Mr.  Spencer  has 
somewhere  reminded  us  that  the  crowbar  is  but 
an  extra  lever  added  to  the  levers  of  which  the 
arm  is  already  composed,  and  the  telescope  but 
adds  a  new  set  of  lenses  to  those  which  already 
exist  in  the  eye.   This  beautiful  illustration  goes 
to  the  kernel  of  the  change  that  was  wrought 
when  natural  selection  began  to  confine  itself 
to  the  psychical  modification  of  our  ancestors. 
In  a  very  deep  sense  all   human  science  is  but 
the  increment  of  the  power  of  the  eye,  and  all 
human  art  is  the  increment  of  the  power  of  the 
hand.^    Vision   and   manipulation,  —  these,  in 
their  countless  indirect  and  transfigured  forms, 
are  the  two  cooperating  factors  in  all  intellec- 
tual progress.     It  is  not  merely  that  with  the 
telescope  we  see  extinct  volcanoes  on  the  moon, 
or  resolve  spots  of  nebulous  cloud  into  clusters 
of  blazing  suns  ;   it  is  that  in  every  scientific 
theory  we  frame  by  indirect  methods  visual  im- 
.    1  Outlines  of  Comic  Philosophy^  part  ii.  ch.  xxi. 
40 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

ages  of  things  not  present  to  sense.  With  our 
mind's  eye  we  see  atmospheric  convulsions  on 
the  surfaces  of  distant  worlds,  watch  the  giant 
ichthyosaurs  splashing  in  Jurassic  oceans,  fol- 
low the  varied  figures  of  the  rhythmic  dance 
of  molecules  as  chemical  elements  unite  and 
separate,  or  examine,  with  the  aid  of  long-for- 
gotten vocabularies  now  magically  restored,  the 
manners  and  morals,  the  laws  and  superstitions, 
of  peoples  that  have  ceased  to  be.*  And  so  in 
art  the  wonderful  printing-press,  and  the  en- 
gine that  moves  it,  are  the  lineal  descendants 
through  countless  stages  of  complication,  of  the 
simple  levers  of  primitive  man  and  the  rude 
stylus  wherewith  he  engraved  strange  hiero- 
glyphs on  the  bark  of  trees.  In  such  ways, 
since  the  human  phase  of  evolution  began,  has 
the  direct  action  of  muscle  and  sense  been  sup- 
plemented and  superseded  by  the  indirect  work 
of  the  inquisitive  and  inventive  mind. 

*  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist,  iv. 


41 


VIII 

GROWING  PREDOMINANCE  OF 
THE  PSYCHICAL  LIFE 

LET  us  note  one  further  aspect  of  this  mighty 
revolution.  In  its  lowly  beginnings  the 
-•  psychical  life  was  merely  an  appendage 
to  the  life  of  the  body.  The  avoidance  of  ene- 
mies, the  securing  of  food,  the  perpetuation  of 
the  species,  make  up  the  whole  of  the  lives  of 
lower  animals,  and  the  rudiments  of  memory, 
reason,  emotion,  and  volition  were  at  first  con- 
cerned solely  with  the  achievement  of  these  ends 
in  an  increasingly  indirect,  complex,  and  effec- 
tive way.  Though  the  life  of  a  large  portion  of 
the  human  race  is  still  confined  to  the  pursuit 
of  these  same  ends,  yet  so  vast  has  been  the 
increase  of  psychical  life  that  the  simple  char- 
acter of  the  ends  is  liable  to  be  lost  sight  of 
amid  the  variety,  the  indirectness,  and  the  com- 
plexity of  the  means.  But  in  civilized  society 
other  ends,  purely  immaterial  in  their  nature, 
have  come  to  add  themselves  to  these,  and  in 
some  instances  to  take  their  place.  It  is  long 
since  we  were  told  that  Man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone.  During  many  generations  we  have 
42 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

seen  thousands  of  men,  actuated  by  the  noblest 
impulse  of  which  humanity  is  capable,  though 
misled  by  the  teachings  of  a  crude  philosophy, 
despising  and  maltreating  their  bodies  as  clogs 
and  incumbrances  to  the  life  of  the  indwelling 
soul.  Countless  martyrs  we  have  seen  throwing 
away  the  physical  earthly  life  as  so  much  worth- 
less dross,  and  all  for  the  sake  of  purely  spiritual 
truths.  As  with  religion,  so  with  the  scientific 
spirit  and  the  artistic  spirit,  —  the  unquenchable 
craving  to  know  the  secrets  of  nature,  and  the 
yearning  to  create  the  beautiful  in  form  and 
colour  and  sound.  In  the  highest  human  beings 
such  ends  as  these  have  come  to  be  uppermost 
in  consciousness,  and  with  the  progress  of  ma- 
terial civilization  this  will  be  more  and  more  the 
case.  If  we  can  imagine  a  future  time  when  war- 
fare and  crime  shall  have  been  done  away  with 
forever,  when  disease  shall  have  been  for  the 
most  part  curbed,  and  when  every  human  being 
by  moderate  labour  can  secure  ample  food  and 
shelter,  we  can  also  see  that  in  such  a  state  of 
things  the  work  of  civilization  would  be  by  no 
means  completed.  In  ministering  to  human 
happiness  in  countless  ways,  through  the  pur- 
suit of  purely  spiritual  ends,  in  enriching  and 
diversifying  life  to  the  utmost,  there  would  still 
be  almost  limitless  work  to  be  done.  I  believe 
that  such  a  time  will  come  for  weary  and  suffer- 
ing mankind.  Such  a  faith  is  inspiring.    It  sus- 

43 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

tains  one  in  the  work  of  life,  when  one  would 
otherwise  lose  heart.  But  it  is  a  faith  that  rests 
upon  induction.  The  process  of  evolution  is 
excessively  slow,  and  its  ends  are  achieved  at 
the  cost  of  enormous  waste  of  life,  but  for  in- 
numerable ages  its  direction  has  been  toward  the 
goal  here  pointed  out ;  and  the  case  may  be  fitly 
summed  up  in  the  statement  that  whereas  in 
its  rude  beginnings  the  psychical  life  was  but 
an  appendage  to  the  body,  in  fully-developed 
Humanity  the  body  is  but  the  vehicle  for  the 
i>oul. 


44 


IX 


THE  ORIGINS  OF  SOCIETY  AND 
OF  MORALITY 

ONE  further  point  must  be  considered 
I  before  this  outline  sketch  of  the  man- 
ner of  man's  origin  can  be  called  com- 
plete. The  psychical  development  of  Human- 
ity, since  its  earlier  stages,  has  been  largely  due 
to  the  reaction  of  individuals  upon  one  another 
in  those  various  relations  which  we  characterize 
as  social/  In  considering  the  origin  of  Man, 
the  origin  of  human  society  cannot  be  passed 
over.  Foreshadowings  of  social  relations  occur 
in  the  animal  world,  not  only  in  the  line  of  our 
own  vertebrate  ancestry,  but  in  certain  orders  of 
insects  which  stand  quite  remote  from  that  line. 
Many  of  the  higher  mammals  are  gregarious, 
and  this  is  especially  true  of  that  whole  order 
of  primates  to  which  we  belong.  Rudimentary 
moral  sentiments  are  also  clearly  discernible  in 
the  highest  members  of  various  mammalian 
orders,  and  in  all  but  the  lowest  members  of 
our  own  order.  But  in  respect  of  definiteness 
and  permanence  the  relations  between  individ- 
*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xxi. 

45 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

uals  in  a  state  of  gregariousness  fall  far  short 
of  the  relations  between  individuals  in  the  rud- 
est human  society.  The  primordial  unit  of  hu- 
man society  is  the  family,  and  it  was  by  the 
establishment  of  definite  and  permanent  family 
relationships  that  the  step  was  taken  which 
raised  Man  socially  above  the  level  of  gregari- 
ous apehood.  This  great  point  was  attained 
through  that  lengthening  of  the  period  of  help- 
less childhood  which  accompanied  the  gradu- 
ally increasing  intelligence  of  our  half-human 
ancestors.  When  childhood  had  come  to  ex- 
tend over  a  period  of  ten  or  a  dozen  years  —  a 
period  which  would  be  doubled,  or  more  than 
doubled,  where  several  children  were  born  in 
succession  to  the  same  parents  —  the  relation- 
ships between  father  and  mother,  brethren  and 
sisters,  must  have  become  firmly  knit ;  and  thus 
the  family,  the  unit  of  human  society,  gradually 
came  into  existence.^  The  rudimentary  growth 
of  moral  sentiment  must  now  have  received  a 
definite  direction.  As  already  observed,  with  the 
beginnings  of  infancy  in  the  animal  world  there 
came  the  genesis  in  the  parents  of  feelings  and 
actions  not  purely  self-regarding.  Rudimentary 
sympathies,  with  rudimentary  capacity  for  self- 
devotion,  are  witnessed  now  and  then  among 
higher  mammals,  such  as  the  dog,  and  not  un- 
commonly  among   apes.     But  as   the   human 

*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xxii. 
46 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

family,  with  its  definite  relationships,  came  into 
being,  there  must  necessarily  have  grown  up  be- 
tween its  various  members  reciprocal  necessities 
of  behaviour.  The  conduct  of  the  individual 
could  no  longer  be  shaped  with  sole  reference 
to  his  own  selfish  desires,  but  must  be  to  a 
great  extent  subordinated  to  the  general  welfare 
of  the  family.  And  in  judging  of  the  character 
of  his  own  conduct,  the  individual  must  now 
begin  to  refer  it  to  some  law  of  things  outside 
of  himself;  and  hence  the  germs  of  conscience 
and  of  the  idea  of  duty.  Such  were  no  doubt 
the  crude  beginnings  of  human  morality. 

With  this  genesis  of  the  family,  the  Creation 
of  Man  may  be  said,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  have 
been  completed.  The  great  extent  of  cerebral 
surface,  the  lengthened  period  of  infancy,  the 
consequent  capacity  for  progress,  the  definite 
constitution  of  the  family,  and  the  judgment  of 
actions  as  good  or  bad  according  to  some  other 
standard  than  that  of  selfish  desire,  —  these  are 
the  attributes  which  essentially  distinguish  Man 
from  other  creatures.  All  these,  we  see,  are  di- 
rect or  indirect  results  of  the  revolution  which 
began  when  natural  selection  came  to  confine 
itself  to  psychical  variations,  to  the  neglect  of 
physical  variations.  The  immediate  result  was 
the  increase  of  cerebrum.  This  prolonged  the 
infancy,  thus  giving  rise  to-  the  capacity  for 
progress ;  and  infancy,  in  turn,  originated  the 

47 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

family  and  thus  opened  the  way  for  the  growth 
of  sympathies  and  of  ethical  feelings.  All  these 
results  have  perpetually  reacted  upon  one  an- 
other until  a  creature  different  in  kind  from  all 
other  creatures  has  been  evolved.  The  creature 
thus  evolved  long  since  became  dominant  over 
the  earth  in  a  sense  in  which  none  of  his  prede- 
cessors ever  became  dominant ;  and  henceforth 
the  work  of  evolution,  so  far  as  our  planet  is 
concerned,  is  chiefly  devoted  to  the  perfecting 
of  this  last  and  most  wonderful  product  of 
creative  energy. 


4« 


X 

IMPROVABLENESS  OF  MAN 

FOR  the  creation  of  Man  was  by  no  means 
the  creation  of  a  perfect  being.  The  most 
essential  feature  of  Man  is  his  improva- 
bleness,  and  since  his  first  appearance  on  the 
earth  the  changes  that  have  gone  on  in  him 
have  been  enormous,  though  they  have  con- 
tinued to  run  along  in  the  lines  of  development 
that  were  then  marked  out.  The  changes  have 
been  so  great  that  in  many  respects  the  interval 
between  the  highest  and  the  lowest  men  far  sur- 
passes quantitatively  the  interval  between  the 
lowest  men  and  the  highest  apes.  If  we  take  into 
account  the  creasing  of  the  cerebral  surface,  the 
difference  between  the  brain  of  a  Shakespeare  and 
that  of  an  Australian  savage  would  doubtless  be 
fifty  times  greater  than  the  difference  between 
the  Australian's  brain  and  that  of  an  orang- 
outang. In  mathematical  capacity  the  Austra- 
lian, who  cannot  tell  the  number  of  fingers  on 
his  two  hands,  is  much  nearer  to  a  lion  or  wolf 
than  to  Sir  Rowan  Hamilton,  who  invented  the 
method  of  quaternions.  In  moral  development 
this  same  Australian,  whose  language  contains 

49 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

no  words  for  justice  and  benevolence,  is  less  re- 
mote from  dogs  and  baboons  than  from  a  How- 
ard or  a  Garrison.  In  progressiveness,  too,  the 
difference  between  the  lowest  and  the  highest 
races  of  men  is  no  less  conspicuous.  The  Aus- 
tralian is  more  teachable  than  the  ape,  but  his 
limit  is  nevertheless  very  quickly  reached.  All 
the  distinctive  attributes  of  Man,  in  short,  have 
been  developed  to  an  enormous  extent  through 
long  ages  of  social  evolution. 

This  psychical  development  of  Man  is  des- 
tined to  go  on  in  the  future  as  it  has  gone 
on  in  the  past.  The  creative  energy  which  has 
been  at  work  through  the  bygone  eternity  is 
not  going  to  become  quiescent  to-morrow.  We 
have  learned  something  of  its  methods  of  work- 
ing, and  from  the  careful  observation  of  the  past 
we  can  foresee  the  future  in  some  of  its  most 
general  outlines.  From  what  has  already  gone 
on  during  the  historic  period  of  man's  existence, 
we  can  safely  predict  a  change  that  will  by  and 
by  distinguish  him  from  all  other  creatures  even 
more  widely  and  more  fundamentally  than  he 
is  distinguished  to-day.  Whenever  in  the  course 
of  organic  evolution  we  see  any  function  begin- 
ning as  incidental  to  the  performance  of  other 
functions,  and  continuing  for  many  ages  to  in- 
crease in  importance  until  it  becomes  an  indispen- 
sable strand  in  the  web  of  life,  we  may  be  sure 
that  by  a  continuance  of  the  same  process  its 

SO 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

influence  is  destined  to  increase  still  more  in  the 
future.  Such  has  been  the  case  with  the  function 
of  sympathy,  and  with  the  ethical  feelings  which 
have  grown  up  along  with  sympathy  and  de- 
pend largely  upon  it  for  their  vitality.  Like 
everything  else  which  especially  distinguishes 
Man,  the  altruistic  feelings  were  first  called  into 
existence  through  the  first  beginnings  of  infancy 
in  the  animal  world.  Their  rudimentary  form 
was  that  of  the  transient  affection  of  a  female 
bird  or  mammal  for  its  young.  First  given  a 
definite  direction  through  the  genesis  of  the 
primitive  human  family,  the  development  of 
altruism  has  formed  an  important  part  of  the 
progress  of  civilization,  but  as  yet  it  has  scarcely 
kept  pace  with  the  general  development  of  in- 
telligence. There  can  be  little  doubt  that  in 
respect  of  justice  and  kindness  the  advance  of 
civilized  man  has  been  less  marked  than  in  re- 
spect of  quick-wittedness.  Now  this  is  because 
the  advancement  of  civilized  man  has  been 
largely  effected  through  fighting,  through  the 
continuance  of  that  deadly  struggle  and  com- 
petition which  has  been  going  on  ever  since 
organic  life  first  appeared  on  the  earth.  It  is 
through  such  fierce  and  perpetual  struggle  that 
the  higher  forms  of  life  have  been  gradually 
evolved  by  natural  selection.  But  we  have  al- 
ready seen  how  in  many  respects  the  evolution 
of  Man  was  the  opening  of  an  entirely  new 

51 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

chapter  in  the  history  of  the  universe.  In  no 
respect  was  it  more  so  than  in  the  genesis  of 
the  altruistic  emotions.  For  when  natural  se- 
lection, through  the  lengthening  of  childhood, 
had  secured  a  determinate  development  for  this 
class  of  human  feelings,  it  had  at  last  originated 
a  power  which  could  thrive  only  through  the 
elimination  of  strife.  And  the  later  history  of 
mankind,  during  the  past  thirty  centuries,  has 
been  characterized  by  the  gradual  eliminating 
of  strife,  though  the  process  has  gone  on  with 
the  extreme  slowness  that  marks  all  the  work 
of  evolution.  It  is  only  at  the  present  day  that, 
by  surveying  human  history  from  the  widest 
possible  outlook,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  habits 
of  thought  which  the  study  of  evolution  fosters, 
we  are  enabled  distinctly  to  observe  this  ten- 
dency. As  this  is  the  most  wonderful  of  all  the 
phases  of  that  stupendous  revolution  in  nature 
which  was  inaugurated  in  the  Creation  of  Man, 
it  deserves  especial  attention  here ;  and  we  shall 
find  it  leading  us  quite  directly  to  our  conclu- 
sion. From  the  Origin  of  Man,  when  thor- 
oughly comprehended  in  its  general  outlines, 
we  shall  at  length  be  able  to  catch  some 
glimpses  of  his  Destiny. 


52 


XI 


UNIVERSAL   WARFARE  OF  PRIME- 
VAL  MEN 

IN  speaking  of  the  higher  altruistic  feelings 
as  being  antagonistic  to  the  continuance  of 
warfare,  I  did  not  mean  to  imply  that  war- 
fare can  ever  be  directly  put  down  by  our  hor- 
ror of  cruelty  or  our  moral  disapproval  of  strife. 
The  actual  process  is  much  more  indirect  and 
complex  than  this.  In  respect  of  belligerency 
the  earliest  men  were  doubtless  no  better  than 
brutes.  They  were  simply  the  most  crafty  and 
formidable  among  brutes.  To  get  food  was  the 
prime  necessity  of  life,  and  as  long  as  food  was 
obtainable  only  by  hunting  and  fishing,  or  other- 
wise seizing  upon  edible  objects  already  in  ex- 
istence, chronic  and  universal  quarrel  was  in- 
evitable. The  conditions  of  the  struggle  for 
existence  were  not  yet  visibly  changed  from 
what  they  had  been  from  the  outset  in  the  ani- 
mal world.  That  struggle  meant  everlasting 
slaughter,  and  the  fiercest  races  of  fighters  would 
be  just  the  ones  to  survive  and  perpetuate  their 
kind.  Those  most  successful  primitive  men, 
from  whom  civilized  peoples  are  descended,  must 

S3 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

have  excelled  in   treachery  and  cruelty,  as  in 
quickness  of  wit  and  strength   of  will.     That 
moral  sense  which  makes  it  seem  wicked  to  steal 
and  murder  was  scarcely  more  developed  in  them 
than  in  tigers  or  wolves.     But  to  all  this  there 
was  one  exception.   The  family  supplied  motives 
for  peaceful   cooperation.*     Within   the   family 
limits  fidelity  and   forbearance  had  their  uses, 
for  events  could  not  have  been  long  in  showing 
that  the  most   coherent  famihes  would  prevail 
over  their  less  coherent  rivals.    Observation  of 
the  most  savage  races  agrees  with  the  compar- 
ative study  of  the  institutions  of  civilized  peo- 
ples, in  proving  that  the  only  bond  of  political 
union  recognized  among  primitive  men,  or  con- 
ceivable by  them,  was  the  physical  fact  of  blood- 
relationship.     Illustrations  of  this  are  found  in 
plenty  far  within  the  historic  period.    The  very 
township,  which  under  one  name  or  another  has 
formed  the  unit  of  political   society  among  all 
civilized  peoples,  was   originally  the  stockaded 
dwelling-place  of  a  clan  which  traced  its  blood 
to  a  common  ancestor.    In  such  a  condition  of 
things  the  nearest  approach  ever  made  to  peace 
was  a  state  of  armed  truce  ;  and  while  the  simple 
rules  of  morality  were  recognized,  they  were  only 
regarded  as  binding  within  the  limits  of  the  clan. 
There  was  no  recognition  of  the  wickedness  of 
robbery  and  murder  in  general. 

1   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xviii. 

54 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

This  state  of  things,  as  above  hinted,  could 
not  come  to  an  end  as  long  as  men  obtained 
food  by  seizing  upon  edible  objects  already  in 
existence.  The  supply  of  fish,  game,  or  fruit 
being  strictly  limited,  men  must  ordinarily  fight 
under  penalty  of  starvation.  If  we  could  put  a 
moral  interpretation  upon  events  which  antedated 
morality  as  we  understand  it,  we  should  say  it 
was  their  duty  to  fight ;  and  the  reverence  ac- 
corded to  the  chieftain  who  murdered  most  suc- 
cessfully in  behalf  of  his  clansmen  was  well 
deserved.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  in  isolated 
parts  of  the  earth  where  the  natural  supply  of 
food  is  abundant,  as  in  sundry  tropical  islands 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  men  have  ceased  from 
warfare  and  become  gentle  and  docile  without 
rising  above  the  intellectual  level  of  savagery. 
Compared  with  other  savages,  they  are  like  the 
chimpanzee  as  contrasted  with  the  gorilla.  Such 
exceptional  instances  well  illustrate  the  general 
truth  that,  so  long  as  the  method  of  obtaining 
food  was  the  same  as  that  employed  by  brute 
animals,  men  must  continue  to  fight  like  dogs 
over  a  bone. 


55 


XII 

FIRST  CHECKED  BY  THE  BEGIN- 
NINGS OF  INDUSTRIAL  CIVILI- 
ZATION 

BUT  presently  man's  superior  intelligence 
came  into  play  in  such  wise  that  other 
and  better  methods  of  getting  food  were 
devised.  When  in  intervals  of  peace  men  learned 
to  rear  flocks  and  herds,  and  to  till  the  ground, 
and  when  they  had  further  learned  to  exchange 
with  one  another  the  products  of  their  labour, 
a  new  step,  of  most  profound  significance,  was 
taken.  Tribes  which  had  once  learned  how  to 
do  these  things  were  not  long  in  overcoming 
their  neighbours,  and  flourishing  at  their  ex- 
pense, for  agriculture  allows  a  vastly  greater 
population  to  live  upon  a  given  area,  and  in 
many  ways  it  favours  social  compactness.  An 
immense  series  of  social  changes  was  now  begun. 
Whereas  the  only  conceivable  bond  of  political 
combination  had  heretofore  been  blood-relation- 
ship, a  new  basis  was  now  furnished  by  terri- 
torial contiguity  and  by  community  of  occupa- 
tion. The  supply  of  food  was  no  longer  strictly 
limited,  for  it  could  be  indefinitely  increased  by 
J6 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

peaceful  industry ;  and  moreover,  in  the  free 
exchange  of  the  products  of  labour,  it  ceased  to 
be  true  that  one  man's  interest  was  opposed  to 
another's.  Men  did  not  at  once  recognize  this 
fact,  and  indeed  it  has  not  yet  become  univer- 
sally recognized,  so  long  have  men  persisted  in 
interpreting  the  conditions  of  industrial  life  in 
accordance  with  the  immemorial  traditions  of 
the  time  when  the  means  of  subsistence  were 
strictly  limited,  so  that  one  man's  success  meant 
another's  starvation.  Our  robber  tariffs  —  mis- 
called "  protective  "  —  are  survivals  of  the  bar- 
barous mode  of  thinking  which  fitted  the  ages 
before  industrial  civilization  began.  But  al- 
though the  pacific  implications  of  free  exchange 
were  very  slowly  recognized,  it  is  not  the  less 
true  that  the  beginnings  of  agriculture  and  com- 
merce marked  the  beginnings  of  the  greatest 
social  revolution  in  the  whole  career  of  man- 
kind. Henceforth  the  conditions  for  the  main- 
tenance of  physical  life  became  different  from 
what  they  had  been  throughout  the  past  history 
of  the  animal  world.  It  was  no  longer  necessary 
for  men  to  quarrel  for  their  food  like  dogs  over 
a  bone;  for  they  could  now  obtain  it  far  more 
effectively  by  applying  their  intelligence  to  the 
task  of  utilizing  the  forces  of  inanimate  nature  ; 
and  the  due  execution  of  such  a  task  was  in  no 
wise  assisted  by  wrath  and  contention,  but  from 
the  outset  was  rather  hindered  by  such  things. 

57 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Such  were  the  beginnings  of  industrial  civ- 
ilization. Out  of  its  exigencies,  continually  in- 
creasing in  complexity,  have  proceeded,  directly 
or  indirectly,  the  arts  and  sciences  which  have 
given  to  modern  life  so  much  of  its  interest  and 
value.  But  more  important  still  has  been  the 
work  of  industrial  civilization  in  the  ethical  field. 
By  furnishing  a  wider  basis  for  political  union 
than  mere  blood-relationship,  it  greatly  extended 
the  area  within  which  moral  obligations  were 
recognized  as  binding.  At  first  confined  to  the 
clan,  the  idea  of  duty  came  at  length  to  extend 
throughout  a  state  in  which  many  clans  were 
combined  and  fused,  and  as  it  thus  increased  in 
generality  and  abstractness,  the  idea  became 
immeasurably  strengthened  and  ennobled.  At 
last,  with  the  rise  of  empires,  in  which  many 
states  were  brought  together  in  pacific  industrial 
relations,  the  recognized  sphere  of  moral  obli- 
gation became  enlarged  until  it  comprehended 
all  mankind. 


58 


XIII 

METHODS  OF  POLITICAL  DEVEL- 
OPMENT, AND  ELIMINATION  OF 
WARFARE 

THIS  rise  of  empires,  this  coalescence  of 
small  groups  of  men  into  larger  and 
larger  political  aggregates,  has  been  the 
chief  work  of  civilization,  when  looked  at  on  its 
political  side.^  Like  all  the  work  of  evolution, 
this  process  has  gone  on  irregularly  and  inter- 
mittently, and  its  ultimate  tendency  has  only 
gradually  become  apparent.  This  process  of 
coalescence  has  from  the  outset  been  brought 
about  by  the  needs  of  industrial  civilization,  and 
the  chief  obstacle  which  it  has  had  to  encounter 
has  been  the  universal  hostility  and  warfare  be- 
queathed from  primeval  times.  The  history  of 
mankind  has  been  largely  made  up  of  fighting, 
but  in  the  careers  of  the  most  progressive  races 
this  fighting  has  been  far  from  meaningless,  like 
the  battles  of  kites  and  crows.  In  the  stream 
of  history  which,  beginning  on  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  has  widened  until  in 
our  day  it  covers  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  and 
*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xviii. 

59 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

is  fast  extending  over  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
earth,  —  in  this  main  stream  of  history  the  war- 
fare which  has  gone  on  has  had  a  clearly  dis- 
cernible purpose  and  meaning.  Broadly  con- 
sidered, this  warfare  has  been  chiefly  the  struggle 
of  the  higher  industrial  civilization  in  defending 
itself  against  the  attacks  of  neighbours  who  had 
not  advanced  beyond  that  early  stage  of  human- 
ity in  which  warfare  was  chronic  and  normal. 
During  the  historic  period,  the  wars  of  Europe 
have  been  either  contests  between  the  industrial 
and  the  predatory  types  of  society,  or  contests 
incident  upon  the  imperfect  formation  of  large 
political  aggregates.  There  have  been  three 
ways  in  which  great  political  bodies  have  arisen. 
The  earliest  and  lowest  method  was  that  o^ con- 
quest without  incorporation.  A  single  powerful 
tribe  conquered  and  annexed  its  neighbours  with- 
out admitting  them  to  a  share  in  the  govern- 
ment. It  appropriated  their  military  strength, 
robbed  them  of  most  of  the  fruits  of  their  la- 
bour, and  thus  virtually  enslaved  them.  Such 
was  the  origin  of  the  great  despotic  empires  of 
Oriental  type.  Such  states  degenerate  rapidly 
in  military  strength.  Their  slavish  populations, 
accustomed  to  be  starved  and  beaten  or  mas- 
sacred by  the  tax-gatherer,  become  unable  to 
fight,  so  that  great  armies  of  them  will  flee  be- 
fore a  handful  of  freemen,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
ancient  Persians  and  the  modern  Egyptians. 
60 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

To  strike  down  the  executive  head  of  such 
an  assemblage  of  enslaved  tribes  is  to  effect 
the  conquest  or  the  dissolution  of  the  whole 
mass,  and  hence  the  history  of  Eastern  peoples 
has  been  characterized  by  sudden  and  gigantic 
revolutions. 

The  second  method  of  forming  great  politi- 
cal bodies  was  that  of  conquest  with  incorpora- 
tion. The  conquering  tribe,  while  annexing  its 
neighbours,  gradually  admitted  them  to  a  share 
in  the  government.  In  this  way  arose  the  Ro- 
man empire,  the  largest,  the  most  stable,  and 
in  its  best  days  the  most  pacific  political  aggre- 
gate the  world  had  as  yet  seen.  Throughout 
the  best  part  of  Europe,  its  conquests  succeeded 
in  transforming  the  ancient  predatory  type  of 
society  into  the  modern  industrial  type.  It  ef- 
fectually broke  up  the  primeval  clan-system, 
with  its  narrow  ethical  ideas,  and  arrived  at  the 
broad  conception  of  rights  and  duties  coexten- 
sive with  Humanity.  But  in  the  method  upon 
which  Rome  proceeded  there  was  an  essential 
element  of  weakness.  The  simple  device  of  re- 
presentation, by  which  political  power  is  equally 
retained  in  all  parts  of  the  community  while  its 
exercise  is  delegated  to  a  central  body,  was  en- 
tirely unknown  to  the  Romans.  Partly  for  this 
reason,  and  partly  because  of  the  terrible  mili- 
tary pressure  to  which  the  frontier  was  perpetu- 
ally exposed,  the  Roman  government  became  a 

6i 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

despotism  which  gradually  took  on  many  of  the 
vices  of  the  Oriental  type.  The  political  weak- 
ness which  resulted  from  this  allowed  Europe 
to  be  overrun  by  peoples  organized  in  clans 
and  tribes,  and  for  some  time  there  was  a  partial 
retrogression  toward  the  disorder  characteristic 
of  primitive  ages.  The  retrogression  was  but 
partial  and  temporary,  however ;  the  exposed 
frontier  has  been  steadily  pushed  eastward  into 
the  heart  of  Asia ;  the  industrial  type  of  society 
is  no  longer  menaced  by  the  predatory  type ; 
the  primeval  clan-system  has  entirely  disap- 
peared as  a  social  force ;  and  warfare,  once 
ubiquitous  and  chronic,  has  become  local  and 
occasional. 

The  third  and  highest  method  of  forming 
great  political  bodies  is  that  oi federation.  The 
element  of  fighting  was  essential  in  the  two 
lower  methods,  but  in  this  it  is  not  essential. 
Here  there  is  no  conquest,  but  a  voluntary 
union  of  small  political  groups  into  a  great  po- 
litical group.  Each  little  group  preserves  its 
local  independence  intact,  while  forming  part  of 
an  indissoluble  whole.  Obviously  this  method 
of  political  union  requires  both  high  intelligence 
and  high  ethical  development.  In  early  times 
it  was  impracticable.  It  was  first  attempted, 
with  brilliant  though  ephemeral  success,  by  the 
Greeks,  but  it  failed  for  want  of  the  device  of 
representation.  In  later  times  it  was  put  into 
62 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

operation,  with  permanent  success,  on  a  small 
scale  by  the  Swiss,  and  on  a  great  scale  by  our 
forefathers  in  England.  The  coalescence  of 
shires  into  the  kingdom  of  England,  effected 
as  it  was  by  means  of  a  representative  assembly, 
and  accompanied  by  the  general  retention  of 
local  self-government,  afforded  a  distinct  pre- 
cedent for  such  a  gigantic  federal  union  as 
men  of  English  race  have  since  constructed  in 
America.  The  principle  of  federation  was  there, 
though  not  the  name.  And  here  we  hit  upon 
the  fundamental  contrast  between  the  history 
of  England  and  that  of  France.  The  method 
by  which  the  modern  French  nation  has  been 
built  up  has  been  the  Roman  method  of  con- 
quest with  incorporation.  As  the  ruler  of  Paris 
gradually  overcame  his  vassals,  one  after  an- 
other, by  warfare  or  diplomacy,  he  annexed 
their  counties  to  his  royal  domain,  and  gov- 
erned them  by  lieutenants  sent  from  Paris. 
Self-orovernment  was  thus  crushed  out  in  France, 
while  it  was  preserved  in  England.  And  just  as 
Rome  achieved  its  unprecedented  dominion  by 
adopting  a  political  method  more  effective  than 
any  that  had  been  hitherto  employed,  so  Eng- 
land, employing  for  the  first  time  a  still  higher 
and  more  effective  method,  has  come  to  play  a 
part  in  the  world  compared  with  which  even  the 
part  played  by  Rome  seems  insignificant.  The 
test  of  the  relative  strength  of  the  English  and 

63 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Roman  methods  came  when  England  and  France 
contended  for  the  possession  of  North  America. 
The  people  which  preserved  its  self-government 
could  send  forth  self-supporting  colonies ;  the 
people  which  had  lost  the  very  tradition  of  self- 
government  could  not.  Hence  the  dominion 
of  the  sea,  with  that  of  all  the  outlying  parts  of 
the  earth,  fell  into  the  hands  of  men  of  Eng- 
lish race;  and  hence  the  federative  method  of 
political  union  —  the  method  which  contains 
every  element  of  permanence,  and  which  is  pa- 
cific in  its  very  conception  —  is  already  assum- 
ing a  sway  which  is  unquestionably  destined  to 
become  universal. 

Bearing  all  this  in  mind,  we  cannot  fail  to 
recognize  the  truth  of  the  statement  that  the 
great  wars  of  the  historic  period  have  been 
either  contests  between  the  industrial  and  the 
predatory  types  of  society  or  contests  incident 
upon  the  imperfect  formation  of  great  political 
aggregates.  Throughout  the  turmoil  of  the  his- 
toric period  —  which  on  a  superficial  view  seems 
such  a  chaos  —  we  see  certain  definite  tendencies 
at  work  ;  the  tendency  toward  the  formation  of 
larger  and  larger  political  aggregates,  and  toward 
the  more  perfect  maintenance  of  local  self- 
government  and  individual  freedom  among  the 
parts  of  the  aggregate.  This  two-sided  process 
began  with  the  beginnings  of  industrial  civili- 
zation ;  it  has  aided  the  progress  of  industry 

64 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

and  been  aided  by  it ;  and  the  result  has  been 
to  diminish  the  quantity  of  warfare,  and  to  les- 
sen the  number  of  points  at  which  it  touches 
the  ordinary  course  of  civilized  life.  With  the 
further  continuance  of  this  process,  but  one 
ultimate  result  is  possible.  It  must  go  on  until 
warfare  becomes  obsolete.  The  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, which  has  witnessed  an  unprecedented 
development  of  industrial  civilization,  with  its 
attendant  arts  and  sciences,  has  also  witnessed 
an  unprecedented  diminution  in  the  strength  of 
the  primeval  spirit  of  militancy.  It  is  not  that 
we  have  got  rid  of  great  wars,  but  that  the  re- 
lative proportion  of  human  strength  which  has 
been  employed  in  warfare  has  been  remarkably 
less  than  in  any  previous  age.  In  our  own  his- 
tory, of  the  two  really  great  wars  which  have 
permeated  our  whole  social  existence,  —  the 
Revolutionary  War  and  the  War  of  Secession, 
—  the  first  was  fought  in  behalf  of  the  pacific 
principle  of  equal  representation ;  the  second 
was  fought  in  behalf  of  the  pacific  principle  of 
federalism.  In  each  case,  the  victory  helped  to 
hasten  the  day  when  warfare  shall  become  un- 
necessary. In  the  few  great  wars  of  Europe 
since  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon,  we  may  see 
the  same  principle  at  work.  In  almost  every 
case  the  result  has  been  to  strengthen  the  pacific 
tendencies  of  modern  society.  Whereas  warfare 
was  once  dominant  over  the  face  of  the  earth, 

65 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

and  came  home  in  all  its  horrid  details  to  every- 
body's door,  and  threatened  the  very  existence 
of  industrial  civilization  ;  it  has  now  become 
narrowly  confined  in  time  and  space,  it  no 
longer  comes  home  to  everybody's  door,  and, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  still  tolerated,  for  want  of  a  bet- 
ter method  of  settling  grave  international  ques- 
tions, it  has  become  quite  ancillary  to  the  para- 
mount needs  of  industrial  civilization.  When 
we  can  see  so  much  as  this  lying  before  us  on 
the  pages  of  history,  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that 
the  final  extinction  of  warfare  is  only  a  question 
of  time.  Sooner  or  later  it  must  come  to  an 
end,  and  the  pacific  principle  of  federalism, 
whereby  questions  between  states  are  settled, 
like  questions  between  individuals,  by  du^  pro- 
cess of  law,  must  reign  supreme  over  a  I  the 
earth. 


(>(y 


XIV 

END  OF  THE  WORKING  OF  NAT- 
URAL SELECTION  UPON  MAN. 
THROWING  OFF  THE  BRUTE- 
INHERITANCE 

AS  regards  the  significance  of  Man's  posi- 
tion in  the  universe,  this  gradual  elimi- 
^  nation  of  strife  is  a  fact  of  utterly  un- 
paralleled grandeur.  Words  cannot  do  justice 
to  such  a  fact.  It  means  that  the  wholesale 
destruction  of  life,  which  has  heretofore  char- 
acterized evolution  ever  since  life  began,  and 
through  which  the  higher  forms  of  organic  ex- 
istence have  been  produced,  must  presently 
come  to  an  end  in  the  case  of  the  chief  of  God's 
creatures.  It  means  that  the  universal  struggle 
for  existence,  having  succeeded  in  bringing  forth 
that  consummate  product  of  creative  energy, 
the  Human  Soul,  has  done  its  work  and  will 
presently  cease.  In  the  lower  regions  of  organic 
life  it  must  go  on,  but  as  a  determining  factor 
in  the  highest  work  of  evolution  it  will  disap- 
pear. 

The  action  of  natural  selection  upon   Man 
has    long    since    been    essentially   diminished 

67 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

through  the  operation  of  social  conditions.  For 
in  all  grades  of  civilization  above  the  lowest, 
"  there  are  so  many  kinds  of  superiorities  which 
severally  enable  men  to  survive,  notwithstand- 
ing accompanying  inferiorities,  that  natural 
selection  cannot  by  itself  rectify  any  particular 
unfitness."  In  a  race  of  inferior  animals  any 
maladjustment  is  quickly  removed  by  natural 
selection,  because,  owing  to  the  universal 
slaughter,  the  highest  completeness  of  life  pos- 
sible to  a  given  grade  of  organization  is  required 
for  the  mere  maintenance  of  life.  But  under 
the  conditions  surrounding  human  development 
it  is  otherwise.^  There  is  a  wide  interval  be- 
tween the  highest  and  lowest  degrees  of  com- 
pleteness of  living  that  are  compatible  with 
maintenance  of  life.  Hence  the  wicked  flourish. 
Vice  is  but  slowly  eliminated,  because  man- 
kind has  so  many  other  qualities,  beside  the  bad 
ones,  which  enable  it  to  subsist  and  achieve  pro- 
gress in  spite  of  them,  that  natural  selection  — 
which  always  works  through  death  —  cannot 
come  into  play.  The  improvement  of  civilized 
man  goes  on  mainly  through  processes  of  direct 
adaptation.  The  principle  in  accordance  with 
which  the  gloved  hand  of  the  dandy  becomes 
white  and  soft  while  the  hand  of  the  labouring 
man  grows  brown  and  tough  is  the  main  prin- 
ciple at  work  in  the  improvement  of  Humanity. 
^   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xxii. 

68 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

Our  intellectual  faculties,  our  passions  and  pre- 
judices, our  tastes  and  habits,  become  strength- 
ened by  use  and  weakened  by  disuse,  just  as  the 
blacksmith's  arm  grows  strong  and  the  horse 
turned  out  to  pasture  becomes  unfit  for  work. 
This  law  of  use  and  disuse  has  been  of  immense 
importance  throughout  the  whole  evolution  of 
organic  life.  With  Man  it  has  come  to  be  para- 
mount. 

If  now  we  contrast  the  civilized  man  intel- 
lectually and  morally  with  the  savage,  we  find 
that,  along  with  his  vast  increase  of  cerebral 
surface,  he  has  an  immensely  greater  power  of 
representing  in  imagination  objects  and  relations 
not  present  to  the  senses.  This  is  the  funda- 
mental intellectual  difference  between  civilized 
men  and  savages.^  The  power  of  imagination, 
or  ideal  representation,  underlies  the  whole  of 
science  and  art,  and  it  is  closely  connected  with 
the  ability  to  work  hard  and  submit  to  present 
discomfort  for  the  sake  of  a  distant  reward.  It 
is  also  closely  connected  with  the  development 
of  the  sympathetic  feelings.  The  better  we  can 
imagine  objects  and  relations  not  present  to 
sense,  the  more  readily  we  can  sympathize  with 
other  people.  Half  the  cruelty  in  the  world  is 
the  direct  result  of  stupid  incapacity  to  put  one's 
self  in  the  other  man's  place.  So  closely  inter- 
related are  our  intellectual  and  moral  natures 
*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xxi. 

69 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

that  the  development  of  sympathy  is  very  con- 
siderably determined  by  increasing  width  and 
variety  of  experience.  From  the  simplest  form 
of  sympathy,  such  as  the  painful  thrill  felt  on 
seeing  some  one  in  a  dangerous  position,  up  to 
the  elaborate  complication  of  altruistic  feelings 
involved  in  the  notion  of  abstract  justice,  the 
development  is  very  largely  a  development  of 
the  representative  faculty.  The  very  same  causes, 
therefore,  deeply  grounded  in  the  nature  of 
industrial  civilization,  which  have  developed 
science  and  art,  have  also  had  a  distinct  tendency 
to  encourage  the  growth  of  the  sympathetic 
emotions. 

But,  as  already  observed,  these  emotions  are 
still  too  feebly  developed,  even  in  the  highest 
races  of  men.  We  have  made  more  progress  in 
intelligence  than  in  kindness.  For  thousands 
of  generations,  and  until  very  recent  times,  one 
of  the  chief  occupations  of  men  has  been  to 
plunder,  bruise,  and  kill  one  another.  The 
selfish  and  ugly  passions  which  are  primordial 
—  which  have  the  incalculable  strength  of  in- 
heritance from  the  time  when  animal  conscious- 
ness began  —  have  had  but  little  opportunity 
to  grow  weak  from  disuse.  The  tender  and 
unselfish  feelings,  which  are  a  later  product  of 
evolution,  have  too  seldom  been  allowed  to 
grow  strong  from  exercise.  And  the  whims  and 
prejudices  of  the  primeval   militant   barbarism 

70 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

are  slow  in  dying  out  from  the  midst  of  peace- 
ful industrial  civilization.  The  coarser  forms 
of  cruelty  are  disappearing,  and  the  butchery  of 
men  has  greatly  diminished.  But  most  people 
apply  to  industrial  pursuits  a  notion  of  antago- 
nism derived  from  ages  of  warfare,  and  seek 
in  all  manner  of  ways  to  cheat  or  overreach  one 
another.  And  as  in  more  barbarous  times  the 
hero  was  he  who  had  slain  his  tens  of  thousands, 
so  now  the  man  who  has  made  wealth  by  over- 
reaching his  neighbours  is  not  uncommonly 
spoken  of  in  terms  which  imply  approval. 
Though  gentlemen,  moreover,  no  longer  assail 
one  another  with  knives  and  clubs,  they  still 
inflict  wounds  with  cruel  words  and  sneers. 
Though  the  free-thinker  is  no  longer  chained 
to  a  stake  and  burned,  people  still  tell  lies  about 
him,  and  do  their  best  to  starve  him  by  hurting 
his  reputation.  The  virtues  of  forbearance  and 
self-control  are  still  in  a  very  rudimentary  state, 
and  of  mutual  helpfulness  there  is  far  too  little 
among  men. 

Nevertheless  in  all  these  respects  some  im- 
provement has  been  made,  along  with  the  dim- 
inution of  warfare,  and  by  the  time  warfare 
has  not  merely  ceased  from  the  earth  but  has 
come  to  be  the  dimly  remembered  phantom  of 
a  remote  past,  the  development  of  the  sympa- 
thetic side  of  human  nature  will  doubtless  be- 
come prodigious.    The  manifestation  of  selfish 

71 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

and  hateful  feelings  will  be  more  and  more 
sternly  repressed  by  public  opinion,  and  such 
feelings  will  become  weakened  by  disuse,  while 
the  sympathetic  feelings  will  increase  in  strength 
as  the  sphere  for  their  exercise  is  enlarged.  And 
thus  at  length  we  see  what  human  progress 
means.  It  means  throwing  off  the  brute-inher- 
itance,—  gradually  throwing  it  off  through  ages 
of  struggle  that  are  by  and  by  to  make  struggle 
needless.  Man  is  slowly  passing  from  a  primi' 
tive  social  state  in  which  he  was  little  better  than 
a  brute,  toward  an  ultimate  social  state  in  which 
his  character  shall  have  become  so  transformed 
that  nothing  of  the  brute  can  be  detected  in  it. 
The  ape  and  the  tiger  in  human  nature  will  be- 
come extinct.  Theology  has  had  much  to  say 
about  original  sin.  This  original  sin  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  brute-inheritance  which 
every  man  carries  with  him,  and  the  process  of 
evolution  is  an  advance  toward  true  salvation. 
Fresh  value  is  thus  added  to  human  Hfe.  The 
modern  prophet,  employing  the  methods  of 
science,  may  again  proclaim  that  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand.  Work  ye,  therefore,  early 
and  late,  to  prepare  its  coming. 


72 


XV 

THE    MESSAGE  OF  CHRISTIANITlf 

NOW  what  is  this  message  of  the  mod- 
ern prophet  but  pure  Christianity  ?  — 
not  the  mass  of  theological  doctrine  in- 
geniously piled  up  by  Justin  Martyr  and  Ter- 
tullian  and  Clement  and  Athanasius  and  Augus- 
tine, but  the  real  and  essential  Christianity  which 
came,  fraught  with  good  tidings  to  men,  from 
the  very  lips  of  Jesus  and  Paul !  When  did  St. 
Paul's  conception  of  the  two  men  within  him 
that  warred  against  each  other,  the  appetites  of 
our  brute  nature  and  the  God-given  yearning 
for  a  higher  life,  —  when  did  this  grand  concep- 
tion ever  have  so  much  significance  as  now  ? 
When  have  we  ever  before  held  such  a  clue  to 
the  meaning  of  Christ  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  ?  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth."  In  the  cruel  strife  of  centu- 
ries has  it  not  often  seemed  as  if  the  earth  were 
to  be  rather  the  prize  of  the  hardest  heart  and 
the  strongest  fist  ?  To  many  men  these  words 
of  Christ  have  been  as  foolishness  and  as  a 
stumbling-block,  and  the  ethics  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  have  been  openly  derided  as  too 

73 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

good  for  this  world.    In  that  wonderful  picture 
of  modern  life  which  is  the  greatest  work  of  one 
of  the  great  seers  of  our  time,  Victor  Hugo 
gives  a  concrete  illustration  of  the  working  of 
Christ's  methods.     In  the  saintlike  career  of 
Bishop  Myriel,  and  in  the  transformation  which 
his  example  works  in  the  character  of  the  hard- 
ened outlaw  Jean  Valjean,  we  have  a  most  pow- 
erful commentary  on  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
By  some  critics  who  could  express  their  views 
freely  about  "  Les  Miserables  "  while  hesitating 
to  impugn  directly  the  authority  of  the  New 
Testament,  Monseigneur  Bienvenu  was  unspar- 
ingly ridiculed  as  a  man  of  impossible  goodness, 
and  as  a  milksop  and  fool  withal.    But  I  think 
Victor   Hugo  understood    the  capabilities    of 
human  nature,  and  its  real  dignity,  much  better 
than  these  scoffers.    In  a  low  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion Monseigneur  Bienvenu  would  have  had 
small  chance  of  reaching  middle    life.    Christ 
himself,  we  remember,  was  crucified    between 
two  thieves.    It  is  none  the  less  true  that  when 
once  the  degree  of  civilization  is  such  as  to  allow 
this  highest  type  of  character,  distinguished  by 
its  meekness  and  kindness,  to  take  root  and 
thrive,  its  methods  are  incomparable  in  their 
potency.    The  Master  knew  full  well  that  the 
time  was  not  yet  ripe,  —  that  he  brought  not 
peace,  but  a  sword.    But  he  preached  neverthe- 
less that  gospel  of  great  joy  which  is  by  and  by 

74 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

to  be  realized  by  toiling  Humanity,  and  he  an- 
nounced ethical  principles  fit  for  the  time  that 
is  coming.  The  great  originality  of  his  teaching, 
and  the  feature  that  has  chiefly  given  it  power 
in  the  world,  lay  in  the  distinctness  with  which 
he  conceived  a  state  of  society  from  which  every 
vestige  of  strife,  and  the  modes  of  behaviour 
adapted  to  ages  of  strife,  shall  be  utterly  and 
forever  swept  away.  Through  misery  that  has 
seemed  unendurable  and  turmoil  that  has  seemed 
endless,  men  have  thought  on  that  gracious  life 
and  its  sublime  ideal,  and  have  taken  comfort 
in  the  sweetly  solemn  message  of  peace  on  earth 
and  good  will  to  men. 

I  believe  that  the  promise  with  which  I  started 
has  now  been  amply  redeemed.  I  believe  it  has 
been  fully  shown  that  so  far  from  degrading 
Humanity,  or  putting  it  on  a  level  with  the 
animal  world  in  general,  the  doctrine  of  evolu- 
tion shows  us  distinctly  for  the  first  time  how 
the  creation  and  the  perfecting  of  Man  is  the 
goal  toward  which  Nature's  work  has  been 
tending  from  the  first.  We  can  now  see  clearly 
that  our  new  knowledge  enlarges  tenfold  the 
significance  of  human  life,  and  makes  it  seem 
more  than  ever  the  chief  object  of  Divine  care, 
the  consummate  fruition  of  that  creative  energy 
which  is  manifested  throughout  the  knowable 
universe. 


75 


XVI 

THE  QUESTION  AS  TO  A  FUTURE 
LIFE 

UPON  the  question  whether  Humanity 
is,  after  all,  to  cast  in  its  lot  with  the 
grass  that  withers  and  the  beasts  that 
perish,  the  whole  foregoing  argument  has  a  bear- 
ing that  is  by  no  means  remote  or  far-fetched. 
It  is  not  Hkely  that  we  shall  ever  succeed  in 
making  the  immortality  of  the  soul  a  matter  of 
scientific  demonstration,  for  we  lack  the  requi- 
site data.  It  must  ever  remain  an  affair  of  reli- 
gion rather  than  of  science.  In  other  words,  it 
must  remain  one  of  that  class  of  questions  upon 
which  I  may  not  expect  to  convince  my  neigh- 
bour, while  at  the  same  time  I  may  entertain  a 
reasonable  conviction  of  my  own  upon  the  sub- 
ject.* In  the  domain  of  cerebral  physiology  the 
question  might  be  debated  forever  without  a  re- 
sult. The  only  thing  which  cerebral  physiology 
tells  us,  when  studied  with  the  aid  of  molecular 
physics,  is  against  the  materialist,  so  far  as  it 
goes.    It  tells  us  that,  during  the  present  life, 

1   The  Unseen  World,  and  other  Essays,  i.  ;  Excursions  of 
un  Evolutionist,  x. 

76 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

although  thought  and  feehng  are  always  man 
ifested  in  connection  with  a  peculiar  form  of 
matter,  yet  by  no  possibility  can  thought  and 
feeling  be  in  any  sense  the  products  of  matter. 
Nothing  could  be  more  grossly  unscientific  than 
the  famous  remark  of  Cabanis,  that  the  brain 
secretes  thought  as  the  liver  secretes  bile.  It  is 
not  even  correct  to  say  that  thought  goes  on 
in  the  brain.  What  goes  on  in  the  brain  is  an 
amazingly  complex  series  of  molecular  move- 
ments, with  which  thought  and  feeling  are  in 
some  unknown  way  correlated,  not  as  effects  or 
as  causes,  but  as  concomitants.  So  much  is  clear, 
but  cerebral  physiology  says  nothing  about  an- 
other life.  Indeed,  why  should  it?  The  last 
place  in  the  world  to  which  I  should  go  for 
information  about  a  state  of  things  in  which 
thought  and  feeling  can  exist  in  the  absence  of 
a  cerebrum  would  be  cerebral  physiology  ! 

The  materialistic  assumption  that  there  is  no 
such  state  of  things,  and  that  the  life  of  the  soul 
accordingly  ends  with  the  life  of  the  body,  is 
perhaps  the  most  colossal  instance  of  baseless 
assumption  that  is  known  to  the  history  of  phi- 
losophy. No  evidence  for  it  can  be  alleged  be- 
yond the  familiar  fact  that  during  the  present 
life  we  know  Soul  only  in  its  association  with 
Body,  and  therefore  cannot  discover  disem- 
bodied soul  without  dying  ourselves.  This  fact 
must  always  prevent  us  from  obtaining  direct 

77 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

evidence  for  the  belief  in  the  soul's  survival. 
But  a  negative  presumption  is  not  created  by 
the  absence  of  proof  in  cases  where,  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  proof  is  inaccessible.*  With  his 
illegitimate  hypothesis  of  annihilation,  the  ma- 
terialist transgresses  the  bounds  of  experience 
quite  as  widely  as  the  poet  who  sings  of  the 
New  Jerusalem  with  its  river  of  life  and  its 
streets  of  gold.  Scientifically  speaking,  there  is 
not  a  particle  of  evidence  for  either  view. 

But  when  we  desist  from  the  futile  attempt  to 
introduce  scientific  demonstration  into  a  region 
which  confessedly  transcends  human  experience, 
and  when  we  consider  the  question  upon  broad 
grounds  of  moral  probability,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  men  will  continue  in  the  future,  as  in  the 
past,  to  cherish  the  faith  in  a  life  beyond  the 
grave.  In  past  times  the  disbelief  in  the  soul's 
immortality  has  always  accompanied  that  kind 
of  philosophy  which,  under  whatever  name,  has 
regarded  Humanity  as  merely  a  local  incident 
in  an  endless  and  aimless  series  of  cosmical 
changes.  As  a  general  rule,  people  who  have 
come  to  take  such  a  view  of  the  position  of  Man 
in  the  universe  have  ceased  to  believe  in  a  future 
life.  On  the  other  hand,  he  who  regards  Man 
as  the  consummate  fruition  of  creative  energy, 
and  the  chief  object  of  Divine  care,  is  almost 

^  The  Unseen  World,  and  other  Essays,  i.  j  Darwinism ,  ani 
ether  Essays,  v. 

78 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

irresistibly  driven  to  the  belief  that  the  soul's 
career  is  not  completed  with  the  present  life 
upon  the  earth.  Difficulties  on  theory  he  will 
naturally  expect  to  meet  in  many  quarters  ;  but 
these  will  not  weaken  his  faith,  especially  when 
he  remembers  that  upon  the  alternative  view 
the  difficulties  are  at  least  as  great.  We  live  in 
a  world  of  mystery,  at  all  events,  and  there  is 
not  a  problem  in  the  simplest  and  most  exact 
departments  of  science  which  does  not  speedily 
lead  us  to  a  transcendental  problem  that  we  can 
neither  solve  nor  elude.  A  broad  common- 
sense  argument  has  often  to  be  called  in,  where 
keen-edged  metaphysical  analysis  has  confessed 
itself  baffled. 

Now  we  have  here  seen  that  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  does  not  allow  us  to  take  the  atheistic 
view  of  the  position  of  Man.  It  is  true  that 
modern  astronomy  shows  us  giant  balls  of  va- 
pour condensing  into  fiery  suns,  cooling  down 
into  planets  fit  for  the  support  of  life,  and  at 
last  growing  cold  and  rigid  in  death,  like  the 
moon.  And  there  are  indications  of  a  time  when 
systems  of  dead  planets  shall  fall  in  upon  their 
central  ember  that  was  once  a  sun,  and  the  whole 
lifeless  mass,  thus  regaining  heat,  shall  expand 
into  a  nebulous  cloud  like  that  with  which  we 
started,  that  the  work  of  condensation  and  evo- 
lution may  begin  over  again.  These  Titanic 
events  must  doubtless  seem  to  our  limited  vision 

79 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

like  an  endless  and  aimless  series  of  cosmical 
changes.  They  disclose  no  signs  of  purpose,  or 
even  of  dramatic  tendency  ;  ^  they  seem  like  the 
weary  work  of  Sisyphos.  But  on  the  face  of  our 
own  planet,  where  alone  we  are  able  to  survey 
the  process  of  evolution  in  its  higher  and  more 
complex  details,  we  do  find  distinct  indications 
of  a  dramatic  tendency,  though  doubtless  not  of 
purpose  in  the  limited  human  sense.  The  Dar- 
winian theory,  properly  understood,  replaces  as 
much  teleology  ^  as  it  destroys.  From  the  first 
dawning  of  life  we  see  all  things  working  to- 
gether toward  one  mighty  goal,  the  evolution 
of  the  most  exalted  spiritual  qualities  which 
characterize  Humanity.  The  body  is  cast  aside 
and  returns  to  the  dust  of  which  it  was  made. 
The  earth,  so  marvellously  wrought  to  man's 
uses,  will  also  be  cast  aside.  The  day  is  to  come, 
no  doubt,  when  the  heavens  shall  vanish  as  a 
scroll,  and  the  elements  be  melted  with  fervent 
heat.  So  small  is  the  value  which  Nature  sets 
upon  the  perishable  forms  of  matter !  The 
question,  then,  is  reduced  to  this :  Are  Man's 
highest  spiritual  qualities,  into  the  production 
of  which  all  this  creative  energy  has  gone,  to 
disappear  with  the  rest  ?  Has  all  this  work  been 
done  for  nothing?  Is  it  all  ephemeral,  all  a 
bubble  that  bursts,  a  vision  that  fades  ?    Are  we 

*  Darwinism,  and  other  Essays,  vi. 
"  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  ii. 
80 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

to  regard  the  Creator's  work  as  like  that  of  a 
child,  who  builds  houses  out  of  blocks,  just  for 
the  pleasure  of  knocking  them  down  ?  For 
aught  that  science  can  tell  us,  it  may  be  so, 
but  I  can  see  no  good  reason  for  believing  any- 
such  thing.  On  such  a  view  the  riddle  of  the 
universe  becomes  a  riddle  without  a  meaning. 
Why,  then,  are  we  any  more  called  upon  to 
throw  away  our  belief  in  the  permanence  of  the 
spiritual  element  in  Man  than  we  are  called  upon 
to  throw  away  our  belief  in  the  constancy  of 
Nature  ?  When  questioned  as  to  the  ground 
of  our  irresistible  belief  that  like  causes  must 
always  be  followed  by  like  effects,  Mr.  Mill's 
answer  was  that  it  is  the  result  of  an  induction 
coextensive  with  the  whole  of  our  experience ; 
Mr.  Spencer's  answer  was  that  it  is  a  postulate 
which  we  make  in  every  act  of  experience ;  ^  but 
the  authors  of  the  "  Unseen  Universe,"  slightly 
varying  the  form  of  statement,  called  it  a  supreme 
act  of  faith,  —  the  expression  of  a  trust  in  God, 
that  He  will  not  "put  us  to  permanent  intel- 
lectual confusion."  Now  the  more  thoroughly 
we  comprehend  that  process  of  evolution  by 
which  things  have  come  to  be  what  they  are, 
the  more  we  are  likely  to  feel  that  to  deny  the 
everlasting  persistence  of  the  spiritual  element 

^  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  i.  ch.  iii.  ;  part  ii. 
ch.  i. ,  xvi.  ;  The  Unseen  World,  and  other  Essays,  i.  j  Daf' 
winism,  and  other  Essays,  vi. 

8i 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

in  Man  is  to  rob  the  whole  process  of  its  mean- 
ing. It  goes  far  toward  putting  us  to  permanent 
intellectual  confusion,  and  I  do  not  see  that  any- 
one has  as  yet  alleged,  or  is  ever  likely  to  allege, 
a  sufficient  reason  for  our  accepting  so  dire  an 
alternative. 

For  my  own  part,  therefore,  I  believe  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  not  in  the  sense  in 
which  I  accept  the  demonstrable  truths  of  sci- 
ence, but  as  a  supreme  act  of  faith  in  the  rea- 
sonableness of  God's  work.  Such  a  belief,  re- 
lating to  regions  quite  inaccessible  to  experience, 
cannot  of  course  be  clothed  in  terms  of  definite 
and  tangible  meaning.  For  the  experience  which 
alone  can  give  us  such  terms  we  must  await  that 
solemn  day  which  is  to  overtake  us  all. ,  The 
belief  can  be  most  quickly  defined  by  its  nega- 
tion, as  the  refusal  to  believe  that  this  world  is 
all.  The  materialist  holds  that  when  you  have 
described  the  whole  universe  of  phenomena  of 
which  we  can  become  cognizant  under  the  con- 
ditions of  the  present  life,  then  the  whole  story 
is  told.  It  seems  to  me,  on  the  contrary,  that 
the  whole  story  is  not  thus  told.  I  feel  the  omni- 
presence of  mystery  in  such  wise  as  to  make  it 
far  easier  for  me  to  adopt  the  view  of  Euripides, 
that  what  we  call  death  may  be  but  the  dawning 
of  true  knowledge  and  of  true  life.  The  great- 
est philosopher  of  modern  times,  the  master 
and  teacher  of  all  who  shall  study  the  process 

82 


THE  DESTINY  OF  MAN 

of  evolution  for  many  a  day  to  come,  holds  that 
the  conscious  soul  is  not  the  product  of  a  collo- 
cation of  material  particles,  but  is  in  the  deep- 
est sense  a  divine  effluence.  According  to  Mr. 
Spencer,  the  divine  energy  which  is  manifested 
throughout  the  knowable  universe  is  the  same 
energy  that  wells  up  in  us  as  consciousness. 
Speaking  for  myself,  I  can  see  no  insuperable 
difficulty  in  the  notion  that  at  some  period  in 
the  evolution  of  Humanity  this  divine  spark 
may  have  acquired  sufficient  concentration  and 
steadiness  to  survive  the  wreck  of  material 
forms  and  endure  forever.  Such  a  crowning 
wonder  seems  to  me  no  more  than  the  fit  climax 
to  a  creative  work  that  has  been  ineffably  beau^ 
tiful  and  marvellous  in  all  its  myriad  stages. 

Only  on  some  such  view  can  the  reasonable- 
ness of  the  universe,  which  still  remains  far 
above  our  finite  power  of  comprehension,  main- 
tain its  ground.  There  are  some  minds  inac- 
cessible to  the  class  of  considerations  here  al- 
leged, and  perhaps  there  always  will  be.  But  on 
such  grounds,  if  on  no  other,  the  faith  in  im- 
mortality is  likely  to  be  shared  by  all  who  look 
upon  the  genesis  of  the  highest  spiritual  quali- 
ties in  Man  as  the  goal  of  Nature's  creative 
work.  This  view  has  survived  the  Copernican 
revolution  in  science,  and  it  has  survived  the 
Darwinian  revolution.  Nay,  if  the  foregoing 
exposition  be  sound,  it  is  Darwinism  which  has 

83 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

placed  Humanity  upon  a  higher  pinnacle  than 
ever.  The  future  is  lighted  for  us  with  the  ra- 
diant colours  of  hope.  Strife  and  sorrow  shall 
disappear.  Peace  and  love  shall  reign  supreme. 
The  dream  of  poets,  the  lesson  of  priest  and 
prophet,  the  inspiration  of  the  great  musician, 
is  confirmed  in  the  light  of  modern  knowledge ; 
and  as  we  gird  ourselves  up  for  the  work  of  life, 
we  may  look  forward  to  the  time  when  in  the 
truest  sense  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall 
become  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  he  shall 
reign  for  ever  and  ever,  king  of  kings  and  lord 
of  lords. 


THE    IDEA  OF  GOD 

AS    AFFECTED    BY   MODERN 
KNOWLEDGE 


To 

MY  WIFE 

W  REMEMBRANCE  OF  THE  SWEET  SUNDAY  MORNING 

UNDER  THE  APPLE-TREE  ON  THE  HILLSIDE, 

WREN  WE  TWO  SAT  LOOKING  DOWN  INTO  FAIRY  WOODLAND  FATHfi, 

AND  TALKED  OF  THE  THINGS 

SINCE  WRITTEN  IN  THIS  LITTLE  BOOX, 

31  now  bebicate  it. 


MOi*   o  Si  cx"*!  i^vTo  (Toi  SC&miu. 


PREFACE 

WHEN  asked  to  give  a  second  address 
before  the  Concord  School  of  Phi- 
losophy, I  gladly  accepted  the  invi- 
tation, as  affording  a  proper  occasion  for  saying 
certain  things  which  I  had  for  some  time  wished 
to  say  about  theism.  My  address  was  designed 
to  introduce  the  discussion  of  the  question 
whether  pantheism  is  the  legitimate  outcome 
of  modern  science.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
object  might  best  be  attained  by  passing  in  re- 
view the  various  modifications  which  the  idea 
of  God  has  undergone  in  the  past,  and  pointing 
out  the  shape  in  which  it  is  likely  to  survive  the 
rapid  growth  of  modern  knowledge,  and  espe- 
cially the  establishment  of  that  great  doctrine  of 
evolution  which  is  fast  obliging  us  to  revise  our 
opinions  upon  all  subjects  whatsoever.  Having 
thus  in  the  text  outlined  the  idea  of  God  most 
likely  to  be  conceived  by  minds  trained  in  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  I  left  it  for  further  dis- 
cussion to  decide  whether  the  term  "  pantheism  " 
can  properly  be  applied  to  such  a  conception. 
While  much  enlightenment  may  be  got  from 

89 


STUDIES   IN   RELIGION 

carefully  describing  the  substance  of  a  philo- 
sophic cfoctrine,  very  little  can  be  gained  by 
merely  affixing  to  it  a  label  ;  and  I  could  not 
but  feel  that  my  argument  would  be  simply  en- 
cumbered by  the  introduction  of  any  question 
of  nomenclature  involving  such  a  vague  and 
uninstructive  epithet  as  "pantheism."  Such 
epithets  are  often  regarded  with  favour  and  freely 
used,  as  seeming  to  obviate  the  necessity  for  that 
kind  of  labour  to  which  most  people  are  most 
averse,  —  the  labour  of  sustained  and  accurate 
thinking.  People  are  too  apt  to  make  such 
general  terms  do  duty  in  place  of  a  careful  ex- 
amination of  facts,  and  are  thus  sometimes  led 
to  strange  conclusions.  When,  for  example, 
they  have  heard  somebody  called  an  "  agnos- 
tic," they  at  once  think  they  know  all  about 
him ;  whereas  they  have  very  likely  learned  no- 
thing that  is  of  the  slightest  value  in  character- 
izing his  opinions  or  his  mental  attitude.  A 
term  that  can  be  applied  at  once  to  a  Comte,  a 
Mansel,  and  a  Huxley  is  obviously  of  little  use 
in  the  matter  of  definition.  But,  it  may  be 
asked,  in  spite  of  their  world-wide  differences, 
do  not  these  three  thinkers  agree  in  holding  that 
nothing  can  be  known  about  the  nature  of  God  ? 
Perhaps  so,  —  one  cannot  answer  even  this  plain 
question  with  an  unqualified  yes  ;  but,  granting 

90 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

that  they  fully  agree  in  this  assertion  of  igno- 
rance, nevertheless,  in  their  philosophic  attitudes 
with  regard  to  this  ignorance,  in  the  use  they 
severally  make  of  the  assertion,  in  the  way  it 
determines  their  inferences  about  all  manner 
of  other  things,  the  differences  are  so  vast  that 
nothing  but  mental  confusion  can  come  from  a 
terminology  which  would  content  itself  by  ap- 
plying to  all  three  the  common  epithet  "agnos- 
tic." The  case  is  similar  with  such  a  word  as 
"  pantheism,"  which  has  been  familiarly  applied 
to  so  many  utterly  diverse  systems  of  thought 
that  it  is  very  hard  to  tell  just  what  it  means. 
It  has  been  equally  applied  to  the  doctrine  of 
"  the  Hindu  philosophers  of  the  orthodox  Brah- 
manical  schools,"  who  "  hold  that  all  finite  ex- 
istence is  an  illusion,  and  life  mere  vexation  and 
mistake,  a  blunder  or  sorry  jest  of  the  Abso- 
lute ; "  and  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Stoics,  who 
"  went  to  the  other  extreme,  and  held  that  the 
universe  was  the  product  of  perfect  reason  and 
in  an  absolute  sense  good."  (Pollock's  "  Spi- 
noza," p.  356.)  In  recent  times  it  has  been 
commonly  used  as  a  vituperative  epithet,  and 
hurled  indiscriminately  at  such  unpopular  opin- 
ions as  do  not  seem  to  call  for  so  heavy  a  mis- 
sile as  the  more  cruel  term  "  atheism."  The 
writer  who  sets  forth  in  plain  scientific  language 

91 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

a  physical  theory  of  the  universe  is  liable  to  be 
scowled  at  and  called  an  atheist ;  but,  when  the 
very  same  ideas  are  presented  in  the  form  of 
oracular  apophthegm  or  poetic  rhapsody,  the 
author  is  more  gently  described  as  "  tinctured 
tvith  pantheism." 

But  out  of  the  chaos  of  vagueness  in  which 
this  unhappy  word  has  been  immersed  it  is  per- 
haps still  possible  to  extract  something  like  a 
definite  meaning.  In  the  broadest  sense  there 
are  three  possible  ways  in  which  we  may  con- 
template the  universe. 

First,  we  may  regard  the  world  of  phenomena 
as  sufficient  unto  itself,  and  deny  that  it  needs 
to  be  referred  to  any  underlying  and  all-com- 
prehensive unity.  Nothing  has  an  ultimate  ori- 
gin or  destiny  ;  there  is  no  dramatic  tendency 
in  the  succession  of  events,  nor  any  ultimate  law 
to  which  everything  must  be  referred  ;  there  is 
no  reasonableness  in  the  universe  save  that  with 
which  human  fancy  unwarrantably  endows  it ; 
the  events  of  the  world  have  no  orderly  progres- 
sion like  the  scenes  of  a  well-constructed  plot, 
but  in  the  manner  of  their  coming  and  going 
they  constitute  simply  what  Chauncey  Wright 
so  aptly  called  "  cosmical  weather  ;  "  they  drift 
and  eddy  about  in  an  utterly  blind  and  irrational 
manner,  though  now  and  then  evolving,  as  if  by 
92 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

accident,  temporary  combinations  which  have  to 
us  a  rational  appearance.  This  is  Atheism,  pure 
and  unquaHfied.  It  recognizes  no  Omnipresent 
Energy. 

Secondly^  we  may  hold  that  the  world  of  phe- 
nomena is  utterly  unintelligible  unless  referred 
to  an  underlying  and  all-comprehensive  unity. 
All  things  are  manifestations  of  an  Omnipre- 
sent Energy  which  cannot  be  in  any  imaginable 
sense  personal  or  anthropomorphic  ;  out  from 
this  eternal  sourceof  phenomena  all  individuali- 
ties proceed,  and  into  it  they  must  all  ultimately 
return  and  be  absorbed  ;  the  events  of  the  world 
have  an  orderly  progression,  but  not  toward  any 
goal  recognizable  by  us ;  in  the  process  of  evo- 
lution there  is  nothing  that  from  any  point  of 
view  can  be  called  teleological ;  the  beginning 
and  end  of  things  —  that  which  is  Alpha  and 
Omega  —  is  merely  an  inscrutable  essence,  a 
formless  void.  Such  a  view  as  this  may  properly 
be  called  Pantheism.  It  recognizes  an  Omni- 
present Energy,  but  virtually  identifies  it  with 
the  totality  of  things. 

Thirdly^  we  may  hold  that  the  world  of  phe- 
nomena is  intelligible  only  when  regarded  as  the 
multiform  manifestation  of  an  Omnipresent 
Energy  that  is  in  some  way  —  albeit  in  a  way 
quite  above  our  finite  comprehension  —  anthro- 

9Z 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

pomorphic  or  quasi-personal.  There  is  a  true 
objective  reasonableness  in  the  universe ;  its 
events  have  an  orderly  progression,  and,  so  far 
as  those  events  are  brought  sufficiently  within 
our  ken  for  us  to  generalize  them  exhaustively, 
their  progression  is  toward  a  goal  that  is  recog- 
nizable by  human  intelligence ;  "  the  process  of 
evolution  is  itself  the  working  out  of  a  mighty 
Teleology  of  which  our  finite  understandings 
can  fathom  but  the  scantiest  rudiments  "  ("  Cos- 
mic Philosophy,"  part  iii.  ch.  ii.) ;  it  is  indeed  but 
imperfectly  that  we  can  describe  the  dramatic 
tendency  in  the  succession  of  events,  but  we  can 
see  enough  to  assure  us  of  the  fundamental  fact 
that  there  is  such  a  tendency  ;  and  this  ten- 
dency is  the  objective  aspect  of  that  which,  when 
regarded  on  its  subjective  side,  we  call  Purpose. 
Such  a  theory  of  things  is  Theism.  It  recog- 
nizes an  Omnipresent  Energy,  which  is  none 
other  than  the  living  God. 

It  is  this  theistic  doctrine  which  I  hold  my- 
self, and  which  in  the  present  essay  I  have 
sought  to  exhibit  as  the  legitimate  outcome  of 
modern  scientific  thought.  I  was  glad  to  have 
such  an  excellent  occasion  for  returning  to  the 
subject  as  the  invitation  from  Concord  gave  me, 
because  in  a  former  attempt  to  expound  the 
same  doctrine  I  do  not  seem  to  have  succeeded 

94 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

in  making  myself  understood.  In  my  "  Out- 
lines of  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  published  in  1874, 
I  endeavoured  to  set  forth  a  theory  of  theism 
identical  with  that  which  is  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
sent essay.  But  an  acute  and  learned  friend, 
writing  under  the  pseudonym  of  "  Physicus," 
in  his  "  Candid  Examination  of  Theism  "  (Lon- 
don, 1878),  thus  criticises  my  theory:  In  it,  he 
says,  "  while  I  am  able  to  discern  the  elements 
which  I  think  may  properly  be  regarded  as 
common  to  Theism  and  to  Atheism,  I  am  not 
able  to  discern  any  single  element  that  is  spe- 
cifically distinctive  of  Theism  "  (p.  145).  The 
reason  for  the  inability  of"  Physicus  "  to  discern 
any  such  specifically  distinctive  element  is  that 
he  misunderstands  me  as  proposing  to  divest 
the  theistic  idea  of  every  shred  of  anthropomor- 
phism, while  still  calling  it  a  theistic  idea.  This, 
he  thinks,  would  be  an  utterly  illegitimate  pro- 
ceeding, and  I  quite  agree  with  him.  In  similar 
wise  my  friend  Mr.  Frederick  Pollock,  in  his 
admirable  work  on  Spinoza  (London,  1880), 
observes  that  "  Mr.  Fiske's  doctrine  excludes 
the  belief  in  a  so-called  Personal  God,  and  the 
particular  forms  of  religious  emotion  dependent 
on  it  "  (p.  3S^).  If  the  first  part  of  this  sen- 
tence stood  alone,  I  might  pause  to  inquire  how 
much  latitude  of  meaning  may  be  conveyed  in 

95 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  expression  "  so-called  ;"  is  it  meant  that  I 
exclude  the  belief  in  a  Personal  God  as  it  was 
held  by  Augustine  and  Paley,  or  as  it  was  held 
by  Clement  and  Schleiermacher,  or  both  ?  But 
the  second  clause  of  the  sentence  seems  to  fur- 
nish the  answer ;  it  seems  to  imply  that  I  would 
practically  do  away  with  Theism  altogether. 

Such  a  serious  misstatement  of  my  position, 
made  in  perfect  good  faith  by  two  thinkers  so 
conspicuous  for  ability  and  candour,  shows  that, 
in  spite  of  all  the  elaborate  care  with  which  the 
case  was  stated  in  "  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  some 
further  explanation  is  needed.  It  is  true  that 
there  are  expressions  in  that  work  which,  taken 
singly  and  by  themselves,  might  seem  to  imply 
a  total  rejection  of  theism.  Such  expressions 
occur  chiefly  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  Anthro- 
pomorphic Theism,"  where  great  pains  are 
taken  to  show  the  inadequacy  of  the  Paley  argu- 
ment from  design,  and  to  point  out  the  insuper- 
able difficulties  in  which  we  are  entangled  by 
the  conception  of  a  Personal  God  as  it  is  held 
by  the  great  majority  of  modern  theologians  who 
have  derived  it  from  Plato  and  Augustine.  In 
the  succeeding  chapters,  however,  it  is  expressly 
argued  that  the  total  elimination  of  anthropo- 
morphism from  the  idea  of  God  is  impossible. 
There  are  some  who,  recognizing  that  the  ideas 

96 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

of  Personality  and  Infinity  are  unthinkable  in 
combination,  seek  to  escape  the  difficulty  by 
speaking  of  God  as  the  "  Infinite  Power  ;  "  that 
is,  Instead  of  a  symbol  derived  from  our  notion 
of  human  consciousness,  they  employ  a  sym- 
bol derived  from  our  notion  of  force  In  general. 
For  many  philosophic  purposes  the  device  Is 
eminently  useful ;  but  It  should  not  be  forgot- 
ten that,  while  the  form  of  our  experience  of 
Personality  does  not  allow  us  to  conceive  It  as 
Infinite,  It  is  equally  true  that  the  form  of  our 
experience  of  Force  does  not  allow  us  to  con- 
ceive It  as  infinite,  since  we  know  force  only  as 
antagonized  by  other  force.  Since,  moreover, 
our  notion  of  force  Is  purely  a  generalization 
from  our  subjective  sensations  of  effort  over- 
coming resistance,  there  is  scarcely  less  anthro- 
pomorphism lurking  In  the  phrase  "  Infinite 
Power"  than  In  the  phrase  "Infinite  Person." 
Now  In  "  Cosmic  Philosophy  "  I  argue  that  the 
presence  of  God  Is  the  one  all-pervading  fact 
of  life,  from  which  there  Is  no  escape  ;  that  while 
in  the  deepest  sense  the  nature  of  Deity  is  un- 
knowable by  finite  Man,  nevertheless  the  exi- 
gencies of  our  thinking  oblige  us  to  symbolize 
that  nature  in  some  form  that  has  a  real  mean- 
ing for  us  ;  and  that  we  cannot  symbolize  that 
nature  as  in  any  wise  physical,  but  are  bound 

97 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

to  symbolize  it  as  in  some  way  psychical.  I  do 
not  here  repeat  the  arguments,  but  simply  state 
the  conclusions.  The  final  conclusion  (part  iii. 
eh.  iv.)  is  that  we  must  not  say  that  "  God  is 
Force,"  since  such  a  phrase  inevitably  calls  up 
those  pantheistic  notions  of  bhnd  necessity, 
which  it  is  my  express  desire  to  avoid ;  but, 
always  bearing  in  mind  the  symbolic  character 
of  the  words,  we  may  say  that  "  God  is  Spirit." 
How  my  belief  in  the  personality  of  God  could 
be  more  strongly  expressed  without  entirely  de- 
serting the  language  of  modern  philosophy  and 
taking  refuge  in  pure  mythology,  I  am  unable 
to  see. 

There  are  two  points  in  the  present  essay 
which  I  hope  will  serve  to  define  more  com- 
pletely the  kind  of  theism  which  I  have  tried  to 
present  as  compatible  with  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution. One  is  the  historic  contrast  between 
anthropomorphic  and  cosmic  theism  regarded 
in  their  modes  of  genesis,  and  especially  as  ex- 
emplified within  the  Christian  church  in  the 
very  different  methods  and  results  of  Augustine 
on  the  one  hand  and  Athanasius  on  the  other. 
The  view  which  I  have  ventured  to  designate 
as  "  cosmic  theism  "  is  no  invention  of  mine ; 
in  its  most  essential  features  it  has  been  enter- 
tained by  some  of  the  profoundest  thinkers  of 

98 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

Christendom  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  from 
Clement  of  Alexandria  to  Lessing  and  Goethe 
and  Schleiermacher.  The  other  point  is  the 
teleological  inference  drawn  from  the  argument 
of  my  first  Concord  address  on  "  The  Destiny 
of  Man,  viewed  in  the  Light  of  his  Origin." 

When  that  address  was  published,  a  year  ago, 
I  was  surprised  to  find  it  quite  commonly  re- 
garded as  indicating  some  radical  change  of  at- 
titude on  my  part,  —  a  "  conversion,"  perhaps, 
from  one  set  of  opinions  to  another.  Inasmuch 
as  the  argument  in  the  "  Destiny  of  Man  "  was 
based  in  every  one  of  its  parts  upon  arguments 
already  published  in  "  Cosmic  Philosophy " 
(1874),  and  in  the  "  Unseen  World"  (1876), 
I  naturally  could  not  understand  why  the  later 
book  should  impress  people  so  differently  from 
the  earlier  ones.  It  presently  appeared,  how- 
ever, that  none  of  my  friends  who  had  studied 
the  earlier  books  had  detected  any  such  change 
of  attitude;  it  was  only  people  who  knew  little 
or  nothing  about  me,  or  else  the  newspapers. 
Whence  the  inference  seemed  obvious  that  many 
readers  of  the  "  Destiny  of  Man  "  must  have 
contrasted  it,  not  with  my  earlier  books  which 
they  had  not  read,  but  with  some  vague  and 
distorted  notion  about  my  views  which  had 
grown  up  (Heaven  knows  how  or  why  !)  through 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  medium  of  "  the  press ; "  and  thus  there 
might  have  been  produced  the  impression  that 
those  views  had  undergone  a  radical  change. 

It  would  be  little  to  my  credit,  however,  had 
my  views  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  its 
implications  undergone  no  development  or  en- 
largement since  the  publication  of  "  Cosmic 
Philosophy."  To  carry  such  a  subject  about  in 
one's  mind  for  ten  years,  without  having  any 
new  thoughts  about  it,  would  hardly  be  a  proof 
of  fitness  for  philosophizing.  I  have  for  some 
time  been  aware  of  a  shortcoming  in  the  earlier 
work,  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  these  two  Con- 
cord addresses  in  some  measure  to  remedy. 
That  shortcoming  was  an  imperfect  appreciation 
of  the  goal  toward  which  the  process  of  evolu- 
tion is  tending,  and  a  consequent  failure  to  state 
adequately  how  the  doctrine  of  evolution  must 
aiffect  our  estimate  of  Man's  place  in  Nature. 
Nothing  of  fundamental  importance  in  "  Cosmic 
Philosophy  "  needed  changing,  but  a  new  chap- 
ter needed  to  be  written,  in  order  to  show  how 
the  doctrine  of  evolution,  by  exhibiting  the  de- 
velopment of  the  highest  spiritual  human  quali- 
ties as  the  goal  toward  which  God's  creative 
work  has  from  the  outset  been  tending,  replaces 
Man  in  his  old  position  of  headship  in  the  uni- 
verse, even  as  in  the  days  of  Dante  and  Aquinas. 

lOO 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

That  which  the  pre-Copernican  astronomy 
naively  thought  to  do  by  placing  the  home  of 
Man  in  the  centre  of  the  physical  universe,  the 
Darwinian  biology  profoundly  accomplishes  by 
exhibiting  Man  as  the  terminal  fact  in  that  stu- 
pendous process  of  evolution  whereby  things 
have  come  to  be  what  they  are.  In  the  deepest 
sense  it  is  as  true  as  it  ever  was  held  to  be,  that 
the  world  was  made  for  Man,  and  that  the  bring- 
ing forth  in  him  of  those  qualities  which  we  call 
highest  and  holiest  is  the  final  cause  of  creation. 
The  arguments  upon  which  this  conclusion  rests, 
as  they  are  set  forth  in  the  "  Destiny  of  Man  " 
and  epitomized  in  the  concluding  section  of  the 
present  essay,  may  all  be  found  in  "  Cosmic 
Philosophy ; "  but  I  failed  to  sum  them  up 
there  and  indicate  the  conclusion,  almost  within 
reach,  which  I  had  not  quite  clearly  seized. 
When,  after  long  hovering  in  the  background 
of  consciousness,  it  suddenly  flashed  upon  me 
two  years  ago,  it  came  with  such  vividness  as  to 
seem  like  a  revelation. 

This  conclusion  as  to  the  implications  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  concerning  Man's  place 
in  Nature  supplies  the  element  wanting  in  the 
theistic  theory  set  forth  in  "  Cosmic  Philoso- 
phy,"—  the  teleological  element.  It  is  pro- 
foundly true  that  a  theory  of  things  may  seem 

lOI 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

theistic  or  atheistic  in  virtue  of  what  it  says  of 
Man,  no  less  than  in  virtue  of  what  it  says  of 
God.  The  craving  for  a  final  cause  is  so  deeply 
rooted  in  human  nature  that  no  doctrine  of 
theism  which  fails  to  satisfy  it  can  seem  other 
than  lame  and  ineffective.  In  writing  "  Cosmic 
Philosophy  "  I  fully  realized  this  when,  in  the 
midst  of  the  argument  against  Paley's  form  of 
theism,  I  said  that  "  the  process  of  evolution  is 
itself  the  working  out  of  a  mighty  Teleology  of 
which  our  finite  understandings  can  fathom  but 
the  scantiest  rudiments."  Nevertheless,  while 
the  whole  momentum  of  my  thought  carried 
me  to  the  conviction  that  it  must  be  so,  I  was 
not  yet  able  to  indicate  how  it  is  so,  and  I  accord- 
ingly left  the  subject  with  this  brief  and  inade- 
quate hint.  Could  the  point  have  been  worked 
out  then  and  there,  I  think  it  would  have  left 
no  doubt  in  the  minds  of"  Physicus  "  and  Mr. 
Pollock  as  to  the  true  character  of  Cosmic 
Theism. 

But  hold,  cries  the  scientific  inquirer,  what  in 
the  world  are  you  doing  ?  Are  we  again  to  re- 
suscitate the  phantom  Teleology,  which  we  had 
supposed  at  last  safely  buried  between  cross- 
roads and  pinned  down  with  a  stake  ?  Was  not 
Bacon  right  in  characterizing  "  final  causes  "  as 
vestal  virgins,  so  barren  has  their  study  proved  ? 

I02 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

And  has  not  Huxley,  with  yet  keener  sarcasm, 
designated  them  the  hetaira  of  philosophy,  so 
often  have  they  led  men  astray  ?  Very  true.  I 
do  not  wish  to  take  back  a  single  word  of  all 
that  I  have  said  in  my  chapter  on  "  Anthro- 
pomorphic Theism  "  in  condemnation  of  the 
teleological  method  and  the  peculiar  theistic 
doctrines  upon  which  it  rests.  As  a  means  of 
investigation  it  is  absolutely  worthless.  Nay,  it 
is  worse  than  worthless ;  it  is  treacherous,  it  is 
debauching  to  the  intellect.  But  that  is  no  rea- 
son why  when  a  distinct  dramatic  tendency  in  the 
events  of  the  universe  appears  as  the  result  of 
purely  scientific  investigation,  we  should  refuse 
to  recognize  it.  It  is  the  object  of  the  "  Destiny 
of  Man  "  to  prove  that  there  is  such  a  dramatic 
tendency ;  and  while  such  a  tendency  cannot  be 
regarded  as  indicative  of  purpose  in  the  limited 
anthropomorphic  sense,  it  is  still,  as  I  said  be- 
fore, the  objective  aspect  of  that  which,  when 
regarded  on  its  subjective  side,  we  call  Purpose. 
There  is  a  reasonableness  in  the  universe  such 
as  to  indicate  that  the  Infinite  Power  of  which 
it  is  the  multiform  manifestation  is  psychical, 
though  it  is  impossible  to  ascribe  to  Him  any 
of  the  limited  psychical  attributes  which  we 
know,  or  to  argue  from  the  ways  of  Man  to  the 
ways  of  God.  For,  as  St.  Paul  reminds  us, 
103 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

"  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  or 
who  hath  been  his  counsellor  ?  " 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  I  accept  Mr.  Spencer's 
doctrine  of  the  Unknowable.  How  far  my  in- 
terpretation agrees  with  his  own  I  do  not  under- 
take to  say.  On  such  an  abstruse  matter  it  is 
best  that  one  should  simply  speak  for  one's  self. 
But  in  his  recent  essay  on  "  Retrogressive  Re- 
ligion "  he  uses  expressions  which  imply  a  doc- 
trine of  theism  essentially  similar  to  that  here 
maintained.  The  "  infinite  and  eternal  Energy 
from  which  all  things  proceed,"  and  which  is  the 
same  power  that  "  in  ourselves  wells  up  under 
the  form  of  consciousness,"  is  certainly  the 
power  which  is  here  recognized  as  God.  The 
term  "  Unknowable  "  I  have  carefully  refrained 
from  using ;  it  does  not  occur  in  the  text  of  this 
essay.  It  describes  only  one  aspect  of  Deity, 
but  it  has  been  seized  upon  by  shallow  writers 
of  every  school,  treated  as  if  fully  synonymous 
with  Deity,  and  made  the  theme  of  the  most 
dismal  twaddle  that  the  world  has  been  deluged 
with  since  the  days  of  mediaeval  scholasticism. 
The  latest  instance  is  the  wretched  positivist 
rubbish  which  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  has  mis- 
taken for  criticism,  and  to  which  it  is  almost  a 
pity  that  Mr.  Spencer  should  have  felt  called 
upon  to  waste  his  valuable  time  in  replying. 
104 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

That  which  Mr.  Spencer  throughout  all  his 
works  regards  as  the  All-Being,  the  Power  of 
which  "  our  lives,  alike  physical  and  mental,  in 
common  with  all  the  activities,  organic  and  in- 
organic, amid  which  we  live,  are  but  the  work- 
ings," —  this  omnipresent  Power  it  pleases  Mr. 
Harrison  to  call  the  "  All-Nothingness,"  to  de- 
scribe it  as  "  a  logical  formula  begotten  in  con- 
troversy, dwelling  apart  from  man  and  the 
world  "  (whatever  all  that  may  mean),  and  to 
imagine  its  worshippers  as  thus  addressing  it  in 
prayer,  "  O  ;c°,  love  us,  help  us,  make  us  one 
with  thee  !  "  If  Mr.  Harrison's  aim  were  to 
understand,  rather  than  to  misrepresent,  the  re- 
ligious attitude  which  goes  with  such  a  concep- 
tion of  Deity  as  Mr.  Spencer's,  he  could  no- 
where find  it  more  happily  expressed  than  in 
these  wonderful  lines  of  Goethe  :  — 

*'  Weltseele,  komm,  uns  zu  durchdringen  ! 
Dann  mit  dem  Weltgeist  selbst  zu  ringen 

Wird  unsrer  Krafte  Hochberuf. 
Theilnehmend  fiihren  gute  Geister, 
Gelinde  leitend,  hochste  Meister, 

Zu  dem  der  alles  schaiFt  und  schuf.** 

Mr.  Harrison  is  enabled  to  perform  his  antics 
simply  because  he  happens  to  have  such  a  word 
as  "  Unknowable  "  to  play  with.  Yet  the  word 
which  has  been  put  to  such  unseemly  uses  is, 
105 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

when  properly  understood,  of  the  highest  value 
in  theistic  philosophy.    That  Deity  per  se  is  not 
only  unknown  but  unknowable  is  a  truth  which 
Mr.  Spencer  has  illustrated  with  all  the  resources 
of  that  psychologic  analysis  of  which  he  is  in- 
comparably the  greatest  master  the  world  has 
ever  seen  ;  but  it  is  not  a  truth  which  originated 
with  him,  or  the  demonstration  of  which  is  tanta- 
mount, as  Mr.  Harrison  would  have  us  believe, 
to  the  destruction  of  all  religion.   Among  all  the 
Christian  theologians  that  have  lived,  there  are 
few  higher  names   than  Athanasius,  who  also 
regarded  Deity  per  se  as  unknowable,  being  re- 
vealed to  mankind  only  through  incarnation  in 
Christ.    It  is  not  as  failing  to  recognize  its  value 
that  I   have  refrained  in  this  essay  from  using 
the  term  "  Unknowable  ;  "  it  is  because  so  many 
false  and  stupid  inferences  have  been  drawn  from 
Mr.   Spencer's  use  of  the  word  that  it  seemed 
worth  while  to  show  how  a  doctrine  essentially 
similar  to  his  might  be  expounded  without  in- 
troducing it.    For  further  elucidation  I  will  sim- 
ply repeat  in  this  connection  what  I  wrote  long 
ago  :  "  It  is  enough  to  remind  the  reader  that 
Deity  is  unknowable  just  in  so  far  as  it  is  not 
manifested  to  consciousness  through  the  phe- 
nomenal world,  —  knowable  just  in  so  far  as  it 
is  thus  manifested :  unknowable  in  so  far  as  in- 
io6 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

finite  and  absolute,  —  knowable  in  the  order  of 
its  phenomenal  manifestations  ;  knowable,  in  a 
symbolic  way,  as  the  Power  which  is  disclosed 
in  every  throb  of  the  mighty  rhythmic  life  of 
the  universe  ;  knowable  as  the  eternal  Source 
of  a  Moral  Law  which  is  implicated  with  each 
action  of  our  lives,  and  in  obedience  to  which 
lies  our  only  guaranty  of  the  happiness  which 
is  incorruptible,  and  which  neither  inevitable 
misfortune  nor  unmerited  obloquy  can  take 
away.  Thus,  though  we  may  not  by  searching 
find  out  God,  though  we  may  not  compass  in- 
finitude or  attain  to  absolute  knowledge,  we 
may  at  least  know  all  that  it  concerns  us  to 
know,  as  intelligent  and  responsible  beings. 
They  who  seek  to  know  more  than  this,  to 
transcend  the  conditions  under  which  alone  is 
knowledge  possible,  are,  in  Goethe's  profound 
language,  as  wise  as  little  children  who,  when 
they  have  looked  into  a  mirror,  turn  it  around 
to  see  what  is  behind  it."  ("  Cosmic  Philoso- 
phy," part  iii.  ch.  v.) 

The  present  essay  must  be  regarded  as  a  se- 
quel to  the  "  Destiny  of  Man,"  —  so  much  so 
that  the  force  of  the  argument  in  the  concluding 
section  can  hardly  be  appreciated  without  refer- 
ence to  the  other  book.  The  two  books,  taken 
107 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

together,  contain  the  bare  outlines  of  a  theory 
of  religion  which  I  earnestly  hope  at  some  future 
time  to  state  elaborately  in  a  work  on  the  true  na- 
ture of  Christianity.    Some  such  scheme  had  be- 
gun vaguely  to  dawn  upon  my  mind  when  I  was 
fourteen  years  old,  and  thought  in  the  language 
of  the  rigid  Calvinistic  orthodoxy  then  prevalent 
in   New  England.    After  many  and   extensive 
changes  of  opinion,  the  idea  assumed  definite 
shape  in  the  autumn  of  1869,  when  1  conceived 
the  plan  of  a  book  to  be  entitled  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  and  the  Founding  of  Christianity,"  — 
a  work  intended  to  deal  on  the  one  hand  with 
the  natural  genesis  of  the  complex  aggregate  of 
beliefs  and  aspirations  known  as  Christianity, 
and  on  the  other  hand  with  the  metamorphoses 
which  are  being  wrought  in  this  aggregate  by 
modern  knowledge  and  modern  theories  of  the 
universe.    Such  a  book,  involving  a  treatment 
both  historical  and  philosophical,  requires  long 
and  varied  preparation ;  and  I  have  always  re- 
garded my  other  books,  published  from  time  to 
time,  as  simply  wayside  studies  preliminary  to 
the  undertaking  of  this  complicated  and  difficult 
task.    While  thus  habitually  shaping  my  work 
with  reference  to   this  cherished  idea,  I    have 
written  some  things  which  are  in  a  special  sense 
related  to  it.    The  rude  outlines  of  a  very  small 
108 


PREFACE  TO  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

portion  of  the  historical  treatment  are  contained 
in  the  essays  on  "The  Jesus  of  History,"  and 
"  The  Christ  of  Dogma,"  published  in  the  vol- 
ume entitled  "  The  Unseen  World,  and  other 
Essays."  The  outlines  of  the  philosophical 
treatment  are  partially  set  forth  in  the  "  Destiny 
of  Man  "  and  in  the  present  work. 

It  amused  me  to  see  that  almost  every  re- 
view of  the  "  Destiny  of  Man  "  took  pains  to 
state  that  it  was  my  Concord  address  "  rewritten 
and  expanded."  Such  trifles  help  one  to  un- 
derstand the  helter-skelter  way  in  which  more 
important  things  get  said  and  believed.  The 
"  Destiny  of  Man  "  was  printed  exactly  as  it 
was  delivered  at  Concord,  without  the  addition, 
or  subtraction,  or  alteration  of  a  single  word. 
The  case  is  the  same  with  the  present  work. 

Petersham,  September  6,  1885, 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 


I 


DIFFICULTY  OF  EXPRESSING  THE 
IDEA  OF  GOD  SO  THAT  IT  CAN 
BE    READILY   UNDERSTOOD 

IN  Goethe's  great  poem,  while  Faust  is  walk- 
ing with  Margaret  at  eventide  in  the  gar- 
den, she  asks  him  questions  about  his 
religion.  It  is  long  since  he  has  been  shriven  or 
attended  mass ;  does  he,  then,  believe  in  God  ? 
—  a  question  easy  to  answer  with  a  simple  yes, 
were  it  not  for  the  form  in  which  it  is  put.  The 
great  scholar  and  subtle  thinker,  who  has  delved 
in  the  deepest  mines  of  philosophy  and  come 
forth  weary  and  heavy-laden  with  their  boasted 
treasures,  has  framed  a  very  different  conception 
of  God  from  that  entertained  by  the  priest  at 
the  confessional  or  the  altar,  and  how  is  he  to 
make  this  intelligible  to  the  simple-minded  girl 
that  walks  by  his  side?  Who  will  make  bold 
to  declare  that  he  can  grasp  an  idea  of  such 
overwhelming  vastness  as  the  idea  of  God,  yet 
who  that  hath  the  feelings  of  a  man  can  bring 
III 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

himself  to  cast  away  a  belief  that  is  indispensa> 
ble  to  the  rational  and  healthful  workings  of 
the  mind  ?  So  long  as  the  tranquil  dome  of 
heaven  is  raised  above  our  heads  and  the  firm- 
set  earth  is  spread  forth  beneath  our  feet,  while 
the  everlasting  stars  course  in  their  mighty  or- 
bits and  the  lover  gazes  with  ineffable  tenderness 
into  the  eyes  of  her  that  loves  him,  so  long,  says 
Faust,  must  our  hearts  go  out  toward  Him  that 
upholds  and  comprises  all.  Name  or  describe 
as  we  may  the  Sustainer  of  the  world,  the  eternal 
fact  remains  there,  far  above  our  comprehension, 
yet  clearest  and  most  real  of  all  facts.  To  name 
and  describe  it,  to  bring  it  within  the  formulas 
of  theory  oV  creed,  is  but  to  veil  its  glory  as 
when  the  brightness  of  heaven  is  enshrouded  in 
mist  and  smoke.  This  has  a  pleasant  sound  to 
Margaret's  ears.  It  reminds  her  of  what  the 
parson  sometimes  says,  though  couched  in  very 
different  phrases  ;  and  yet  she  remains  uneasy 
and  unsatisfied.  Her  mind  is  benumbed  by  the 
presence  of  an  idea  confessedly  too  great  to  be 
grasped.  She  feels  the  need  of  some  concrete 
symbol  that  can  be  readily  apprehended ;  and 
she  hopes  that  her  lover  has  not  been  learning 
bad  lessons  from  Mephistopheles. 

The  difSculty  which  here  besets  Margaret 
must  doubtless  have  been  felt  by  every  one 
when  confronted  with  the  thoughts  by  which 
the  highest  human  minds  have  endeavoured  to 

112 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

disclose  the  hidden  life  of  the  universe  and  inter- 
pret its  meaning.  It  is  a  difficulty  which  baffles 
many,  and  they  who  surmount  It  are  few  Indeed. 
Most  people  content  themselves  through  life 
with  a  set  of  concrete  formulas  concerning  Deity, 
and  vituperate  as  atheistic  all  conceptions  which 
refuse  to  be  compressed  within  the  narrow  limits 
of  their  creed.  For  the  great  mass  of  men  the 
idea  of  God  is  quite  overlaid  and  obscured  by 
innumerable  symbolic  rites  and  doctrines  that 
have  grown  up  in  the  course  of  the  long  historic 
development  of  religion.  All  such  rites  and 
doctrines  had  a  meaning  once,  beautiful  and 
inspiring  or  terrible  and  forbidding,  and  many 
of  them  still  retain  it.  But  whether  meaning- 
less or  fraught  with  significance,  men  have 
wildly  clung  to  them  as  shipwrecked  mariners 
cling  to  the  drifting  spars  that  alone  give  promise 
of  rescue  from  threatening  death.  Such  concrete 
symbols  have  in  all  ages  been  argued  and  fought 
for  until  they  have  come  to  seem  the  essentials 
of  religion  ;  and  new  moons  and  sabbaths,  de- 
crees of  councils  and  articles  of  faith,  have 
usurped  the  place  of  the  living  God.  In  every 
age  the  theory  or  discovery  —  however  pro- 
foundly thelstic  in  its  real  Import  —  which  has 
thrown  discredit  upon  such  symbols  has  been 
stigmatized  as  subversive  of  religion,  and  its 
adherents  have  been  reviled  and  persecuted.  It 
is,  of  course,  inevitable  that  this  should  be  so. 

"3 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

To  the  half-educated  mind  a  theory  of  divine 
action  couched  in  the  form  of  a  legend,  in  which 
God  is  depicted  as  entertaining  human  purposes 
and  swayed  by  human  passions,  is  not  only  in- 
telligible, but  impressive.  It  awakens  emotion, 
it  speaks  to  the  heart,  it  threatens  the  sinner 
with  wrath  to  come  or  heals  the  wounded  spirit 
with  sweet  whispers  of  consolation.  However 
mythical  the  form  in  which  it  is  presented, 
however  literally  false  the  statements  of  which 
it  is  composed,  it  seems  profoundly  real  and 
substantial.  Just  in  so  far  as  it  is  crudely  con- 
crete, just  in  so  far  as  Its  terms  can  be  vividly 
realized  by  the  ordinary  mind,  does  such  a 
theological  theory  seem  weighty  and  true.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  theory  of  divine  action  which, 
discarding  as  far  as  possible  the  aid  of  concrete 
symbols,  attempts  to  include  within  its  range 
the  endlessly  complex  operations  that  are  for- 
ever going  on  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  knowable  universe,  —  such  a 
theory  is  to  the  ordinary  mind  unintelligible. 
It  awakens  no  emotion  because  it  is  not  under- 
stood. Though  it  may  be  the  nearest  approxi- 
mation to  the  truth  of  which  the  human  intel- 
lect is  at  the  present  moment  capable,  though 
the  statements  of  which  it  is  composed  may  be 
firmly  based  upon  demonstrated  facts  in  nature, 
it  will  nevertheless  seem  eminently  unreal  and 
uninteresting.  The  dullest  peasant  can  under- 
114 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

stand  you  when  you  tell  him  that  honey  is 
sweet,  while  a  statement  that  the  ratio  of  the 
circumference  of  a  circle  to  its  diameter  may  be 
expressed  by  the  formula  7r=3.i4i  59  will  sound 
as  gibberish  in  his  ears  ;  yet  the  truth  embodied 
in  the  latter  statement  is  far  more  closely  impli- 
cated with  every  act  of  the  peasant's  life,  if  he 
only  knew  it,  than  the  truth  expressed  in  the 
former.  So  the  merest  child  may  know  enough 
to  marvel  at  the  Hebrew  legend  of  the  burning 
bush,  but  only  the  ripest  scholar  can  begin  to 
understand  the  character  of  the  mighty  problems 
with  which  Spinoza  was  grappling  when  he  had 
so  much  to  say  about  natura  naturans  and  natura 
naturata. 

For  these  reasons  all  attempts  to  study  God 
as  revealed  in  the  workings  of  the  visible  uni- 
verse, and  to  characterize  the  divine  activity  in 
terms  derived  from  such  study,  have  met  with 
discouragement,  if  not  with  obloquy.  As  sub- 
stituting a  less  easily  comprehensible  formula 
for  one  that  is  more  easily  comprehensible,  they 
seem  to  be  frittering  away  the  idea  of  God,  and 
reducing  it  to  an  empty  abstraction.  There  is  a 
further  reason  for  the  dread  with  which  such 
studies  are  commonly  regarded.  The  theories 
of  divine  action  accepted  as  orthodox  by  the  men 
of  any  age  have  been  bequeathed  to  them  by 
their  forefathers  of  an  earlier  age.  They  were 
originally  framed  with   reference   to   assumed 

"5 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

facts  of  nature  which  advancing  knowledge  is 
continually    discrediting    and    throwing    aside. 
Each   forward  step  in  physical  science  obliges 
us  to  contemplate  the  universe  from  a  some- 
what altered  point  of  view,  so  that  the  mutual 
relations  of  its  parts  keep  changing  as   in  an 
ever-shifting   landscape.     The   notions   of  the 
world  and  its  Maker  with  which  we  started  by 
and  by  prove  meagre  and  unsatisfying  ;  they  no 
longer  fit  in  with  the  general  scheme  of  our 
knowledge.      Hence  the  men  who  are  wedded 
to  the  old  notions  are  quick  to  sound  the  alarm. 
They  would  fain  deter  us  from  taking  the  for- 
ward step  which  carries  us  to  a  new  standpoint. 
Beware  of  science,  they  cry,  lest  with  its  daz- 
zling discoveries  and  adventurous  speculations 
it  rob  us  of  our  soul's  comfort  and  leave  us  in 
a  godless  world.     Such  in  every  age  has  been 
the  cry  of  the  more  timid  and  halting  spirits ; 
and  their  fears  have  found  apparent  confirma- 
tion in  the  behaviour  of  a  very  different  class 
of  thinkers.     As  there  are  those  who  live  in 
perpetual  dread  of  the  time  when  science  shall 
banish  God  from  the  world,  so,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  those  who  look  forward  with 
longing  to  such  a  time,  and  in  their  impatience 
are  continually  starting  up  and  proclaiming  that 
at  last  it  has  come.    There  are  those  who  have 
indeed  learned  a  lesson  from   Mephistopheles, 
the   "  spirit  that   forever   denies."    These   are 
ii6 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

they  that  say  in  their  hearts,  "  There  is  no 
God,"  and  "  congratulate  themselves  that  they 
are  going  to  die  like  the  beasts."  Rushing  into 
the  holiest  arcana  of  philosophy,  even  where 
angels  fear  to  tread,  they  lay  hold  of  each  new 
discovery  in  science  that  modifies  our  view  of 
the  universe,  and  herald  it  as  a  crowning  victory 
for  the  materialists,  —  a  victory  which  is  usher- 
ing in  the  happy  day  when  atheism  is  to  be  the 
creed  of  all  men.  It  is  in  view  of  such  philo- 
sophizers  that  the  astronomer,  the  chemist,  or 
the  anatomist,  whose  aim  is  the  dispassionate 
examination  of  evidence  and  the  unbiassed 
study  of  phenomena,  may  fitly  utter  the  prayer, 
"  Lord,  save  me  from  my  friends  !  " 

Thus  through  age  after  age  has  it  fared  with 
men's  discoveries  in  science,  and  with  their 
thoughts  about  God  and  the  soul.  It  was  so  in 
the  days  of  Galileo  and  Newton,  and  we  have 
found  it  to  be  so  in  the  days  of  Darwin  and 
Spencer.  The  theologian  exclaims.  If  planets 
are  held  in  place  by  gravitation  and  tangential 
momentum,  and  if  the  highest  forms  of  life 
have  been  developed  by  natural  selection  and 
direct  adaptation,  then  the  universe  is  swayed 
by  blind  forces,  and  nothing  is  left  for  God  to 
do  :  how  impious  and  terrible  the  thought ! 
Even  so,  echoes  the  favourite  atheist,  the  La- 
mettrie  or  Biichner  of  the  day  ;  the  universe,  it 
seems,  has  always  got  on  without  a  God,  and 
117 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

accordingly  there  is  none  :  how  noble  and  cheer- 
ing the  thought !  And  as  thus  age  after  age 
they  wrangle,  with  their  eyes  turned  away  from 
the  light,  the  world  goes  on  to  larger  and  larger 
knowledge  in  spite  of  them,  and  does  not  lose 
its  faith,  for  all  these  darkeners  of  counsel  may 
say.  As  in  the  roaring  loom  of  Time  the  end- 
less web  of  events  is  woven,  each  strand  shall 
make  more  and  more  clearly  visible  the  living 
garment  of  God. 


Ii8 


II 


THE  RAPID  GROWTH  OF  MODERN 
KNOWLEDGE 

ik  T  no  time  since  men  have  dwelt  upon 
/-\  the  earth  have  their  notions  about  the 
•^  -^  universe  undergone  so  great  a  change 
as  in  the  century  of  which  we  are  now  approach- 
ing the  end.  Never  before  has  knowledge  in- 
creased so  rapidly  ;  never  before  has  philosoph- 
ical speculation  been  so  actively  conducted,  or 
its  results  so  widely  diffused.  It  is  a  charac- 
teristic of  organic  evolution  that  numerous 
progressive  tendencies,  for  a  long  time  incon- 
spicuous, now  and  then  unite  to  bring  about 
a  striking  and  apparently  sudden  change  ;  or  a 
set  of  forces,  quietly  accumulating  in  one  direc- 
tion, at  length  unlock  some  new  reservoir  of 
force  and  abruptly  inaugurate  a  new  series  of 
phenomena,  as  when  water  rises  in  a  tank  until 
its  overflow  sets  whirling  a  system  of  toothed 
wheels.  It  may  be  that  Nature  makes  no  leaps, 
but  in  this  way  she  now  and  then  makes  very 
long  strides.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  course 
of  organic  development  is  marked  here  and  there 
by  memorable  epochs,  which  seem  to  open  new 
119 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

chapters  in  the  history  of  the  universe.  There 
was  such  an  epoch  when  the  common  ancestor  of 
ascidian  and  amphioxus  first  showed  rudimentary- 
traces  of  a  vertebral  column.  There  was  such  an 
epoch  when  the  air-bladder  of  early  amphibians 
began  to  do  duty  as  a  lung.  Greatest  of  all,  since 
the  epoch,  still  hidden  from  our  ken,  when  or- 
ganic life  began  upon  the  surface  of  the  globe,  was 
the  birth  of  that  new  era  when,  through  a  won- 
drous change  in  the  direction  of  the  working  of 
natural  selection,  Humanity  appeared  upon  the 
scene.  In  the  career  of  the  human  race  we  can 
likewise  point  to  periods  in  which  it  has  become 
apparent  that  an  immense  stride  was  taken.  Such 
a  period  marks  the  dawning  of  human  history, 
when  after  countless  ages  of  desultory  tribal 
warfare  men  succeeded  in  uniting  into  compar- 
atively stable  political  societies,  and  through 
the  medium  of  written  language  began  handing 
down  to  posterity  the  record  of  their  thoughts 
and  deeds.  Since  that  morning  twilight  of  his- 
tory there  has  been  no  era  so  strongly  marked, 
no  change  so  swift  or  so  far-reaching  in  the  con- 
ditions of  human  life,  as  that  which  began  with 
the  great  maritime  discoveries  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  is  approaching  its  culmination  to- 
day. In  its  earlier  stages  this  modern  era  was 
signalized  by  sporadic  achievements  of  the  hu- 
man intellect,  great  in  themselves  and  leading 
to  such  stupendous  results  as  the  boldest  dared 
1 20 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

not  dream  of.  Such  achievements  were  the  In- 
vention of  printing,  the  telescope  and  micro- 
scope, the  geometry  of  Descartes,  the  astronomy 
of  Newton,  the  physics  of  Huyghens,  the  physi- 
ology of  Harvey.  Man's  senses  were  thus  indefi- 
nitely enlarged  as  his  means  of  registration  were 
perfected ;  he  became  capable  of  extending  phy- 
sical inferences  from  the  earth  to  the  heavens  ; 
and  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with  that 
luminiferous  ether  which  was  by  and  by  to  re- 
veal the  intimate  structure  of  matter  in  regions 
far  beyond  the  power  of  the  microscope  to  pen- 
etrate. 

It  is  only  within  the  present  century  that  the 
vastness  of  the  changes  thus  beginning  to  be 
wrought  has  become  apparent.  The  scientific 
achievements  of  the  human  intellect  no  longer 
occur  sporadically :  they  follow  one  upon  an- 
other, like  the  organized  and  systematic  con- 
quests of  a  resistless  army.  Each  new  discovery 
becomes  at  once  a  powerful  implement  in  the 
hands  of  innumerable  workers,  and  each  year 
wins  over  fresh  regions  of  the  universe  from 
the  unknown  to  the  known.  Our  own  genera- 
tion has  become  so  wonted  to  this  unresting 
march  of  discovery  that  we  already  take  it  as 
quite  a  matter  of  course.  Our  minds  become 
easily  deadened  to  its  real  import,  and  the  ex- 
amples we  cite  in  illustration  of  it  have  an  air 
of  triteness.    We  scarcely  need  to  be  reminded 

121 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

that  all  the  advances  made  in  locomotion,  from 
the  days  of  Nebuchadnezzar  to  those  of  An- 
drew Jackson,  were  as  nothing  compared  to 
the  change  that  has  been  wrought  within  a  few 
years  by  the  introduction  of  railroads.  In  these 
times,  when  Puck  has  fulfilled  his  boast  and 
put  a  girdle  about  the  earth  in  forty  minutes, 
we  are  not  yet  perhaps  in  danger  of  forgetting 
that  a  century  has  not  elapsed  since  he  who 
caught  the  lightning  upon  his  kite  was  laid  in 
the  grave.  Yet  the  lesson  of  these  facts,  as  well 
as  of  the  grandmother's  spinning-wheel  that 
stands  by  the  parlour  fireside,  is  well  to  bear  in 
mind.  The  change  therein  exemplified  since 
Penelope  plied  her  distaff  is  far  less  than  that 
which  has  occurred  within  the  memory  of  living 
men.  The  developments  of  machinery,  which 
have  worked  such  wonders,  have  greatly  altered 
the  political  conditions  of  human  society,  so 
that  a  huge  republic  like  the  United  States  is 
now  as  snug  and  compact  and  easily  manage- 
able as  the  tiny  republic  of  Switzerland  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  number  of  men  that 
can  live  upon  a  given  area  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face has  been  multiplied  manifold,  and  while 
the  mass  of  human  life  has  thus  increased,  its 
value  has  been  at  the  same  time  enhanced. 

In  these  various  applications  of  physical  the- 
ory to  the  industrial  arts,  countless  minds,  of 
a  class  that  formerly  were  not  reached  by  sci- 

122 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

entific  reasoning  at  all,  are  now  brought  into 
daily  contact  with  complex  and  subtle  opera- 
tions of  matter,  and  their  habits  of  thought 
are  thus  notably  modified.  Meanwhile,  in  the 
higher  regions  of  chemistry  and  molecular  phy- 
sics the  progress  has  been  such  that  no  descrip- 
tion can  do  it  justice.  When  we  reflect  that  a 
fourth  generation  has  barely  had  time  to  appear 
on  the  scene  since  Priestley  discovered  that  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  oxygen,  we  stand  awestruck 
before  the  stupendous  pile  of  chemical  science 
which  has  been  reared  in  this  brief  interval. 
Our  knowledge  thus  gained  of  the  molecular 
and  atomic  structure  of  matter  has  been  alone 
sufficient  to  remodel  our  conceptions  of  the 
universe  from  beginning  to  end.  The  case  of 
molecular  physics  is  equally  striking.  The 
theory  of  the  conservation  of  energy,  and  the 
discovery  that  light,  heat,  electricity,  and  mag- 
netism are  differently  conditioned  modes  of 
undulatory  motion  transformable  each  into  the 
other,  are  not  yet  fifty  years  old.  In  physical 
astronomy  we  remained  until  1839  confined 
within  the  limits  of  the  solar  system,  and  even 
here  the  Newtonian  theory  had  not  yet  won  its 
crowning  triumph  in  the  discovery  of  the  planet 
Neptune.  To-day  we  not  only  measure  the  dis- 
tances and  movements  of  many  stars,  but  by 
means  of  spectrum  analysis  are  able  to  tell  what 
they  are  made  of.  It  is  more  than  a  century 
123 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

since  the  nebular  hypothesis,  by  which  we  ex- 
plain the  development  of  stellar  systems,  was 
first  propounded  by  Immanuel  Kant,  but  it  is 
only  within  thirty  years  that  it  has  been  gener- 
ally adopted  by  astronomers ;  and  among  the 
outward  illustrations  of  its  essential  soundness 
none  is  more  remarkable  than  its  surviving  such 
an  enlargement  of  our  knowledge.  Coming  to 
the  geologic  study  of  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  on  the  earth's  surface,  it  was  in 
1830  that  Sir  Charles  Lyell  published  the  book 
which  first  placed  this  study  upon  a  scientific 
basis.  Cuvier's  classification  of  past  and  present 
forms  of  animal  life,  which  laid  the  foundations 
alike  of  comparative  anatomy  and  of  palaeon- 
tology, came  but  little  earlier.  The  cell-doc- 
trine of  Schleiden  and  Schwann,  prior  to  which 
modern  biology  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  ex- 
isted, dates  from  1839;  and  it  was  only  ten 
years  before  that  the  scientific  treatment  of 
embryology  began  with  Von  Baer.  At  the 
present  moment,  twenty-six  years  have  not 
elapsed  since  the  epoch-making  work  of  Dar- 
win first  announced  to  the  world  the  discovery 
of  natural  selection. 

In  the  cycle  of  studies  which  are  immediately 
concerned  with  the  career  of  mankind,  the  rate 
of  progress  has  been  no  less  marvellous.  The 
scientific  study  of  human  speech  may  be  said 
to  date  from  the  flash  of  insight  which  led 
124 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

Friedrich  Schlegel  in  1808  to  detect  the  kin- 
ship between  the  Aryan  languages.  From  this 
beginning  to  the  researches  of  Fick  and  Ascoli 
in  our  own  time,  the  quantity  of  achievement 
rivals  anything  the  physical  sciences  can  show. 
The  study  of  comparative  mythology,  which 
has  thrown  such  light  upon  the  primitive 
thoughts  of  mankind,  is  still  younger,  —  is  still, 
indeed,  in  its  infancy.  The  application  of  the 
comparative  method  to  the  investigation  of  laws 
and  customs,  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  and 
industrial  systems,  has  been  carried  on  scarcely 
thirty  years  ;  yet  the  results  already  obtained 
are  obliging  us  to  rewrite  the  history  of  man- 
kind in  all  its  stages.  The  great  achievements 
of  archaeologists — the  decipherment  of  Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphs  and  of  cuneiform  inscriptions 
in  Assyria  and  Persia,  the  unearthing  of  ancient 
cities,  the  discovery  and  classification  of  prime- 
val implements  and  works  of  art  in  all  quar- 
ters of  the  globe  —  belong  almost  entirely  to  the 
nineteenth  century.  These  discoveries,  which 
have  well-nigh  doubled  for  us  the  length  of  the 
historic  period,  have  united  with  the  quite  mod- 
ern revelations  of  geology  concerning  the  an- 
cient glaciation  of  the  temperate  zones,  to  give 
us  an  approximate  idea  of  the  age  of  the  human 
race  ^  and  the  circumstances  attending  its  diffu- 
sion over  the  earth.  It  has  thus  at  length  be- 
*  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist ^  ii. 
125 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

come  possible  to  obtain  something  like  the  out- 
lines of  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  history  of 
the  creation,  from  the  earliest  stages  of  conden- 
sation of  our  solar  nebula  down  to  the  very  time 
in  which  we  live,  and  to  infer  from  the  char- 
acteristics of  this  past  evolution  some  of  the 
most  general  tendencies  of  the  future. 

All  this  accumulation  of  physical  and  histori- 
cal knowledge  has  not  failed  to  react  upon  our 
study  of  the  human  mind  itself  In  books  of 
logic  the  score  of  centuries  between  Aristotle 
and  Whately  saw  less  advance  than  the  few 
years  between  Whately  and  Mill.  In  psycho- 
logy the  work  of  Fechner  and  Wundt  and 
Spencer  belongs  to  the  age  in  which  we  are  now 
living.  When  to  all  this  variety  of  achievement 
we  add  what  has  been  done  in  the  critical  study 
of  literature  and  art,  of  classical  and  Biblical 
philology,  and  of  metaphysics  and  theology," 
illustrating  from  fresh  points  of  view  the  his- 
tory of  the  human  mind,  the  sum  total  becomes 
almost  too  vast  to  be  comprehended.  This  cen- 
tury, which  some  have  called  an  age  of  iron, 
has  been  also  an  age  of  ideas,  an  era  of  seeking 
and  finding  the  like  of  which  was  never  known 
before.  It  is  an  epoch  the  grandeur  of  which 
dwarfs  all  others  that  can  be  named  since  the 
beginning  of  the  historic  period,  if  not  since 
Man  first  became  distinctively  human.  In  their 
mental  habits,  in  their  methods  of  inquiry,  and 
126 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

in  the  data  at  their  command,  "  the  men  of  the 
present  day  who  have  fully  kept  pace  with  the 
scientific  movement  are  separated  from  the  men 
whose  education  ended  in  1830  by  an  immea- 
surably wider  gulf  than  has  ever  before  divided 
one  progressive  generation  of  men  from  their 
predecessors."  ^  The  intellectual  development 
of  the  human  race  has  been  suddenly,  almost 
abruptly,  raised  to  a  higher  plane  than  that 
upon  which  it  had  proceeded  from  the  days 
of  the  primitive  troglodyte  to  the  days  of  our 
great-grandfathers.  It  is  characteristic  of  this 
higher  plane  of  development  that  the  progress 
which  until  lately  was  so  slow  must  henceforth 
be  rapid.  Men's  minds  are  becoming  more 
flexible,  the  resistance  to  innovation  is  weaken- 
ing, and  our  intellectual  demands  are  multiply- 
ing while  the  means  of  satisfying  them  are  in- 
creasing. Vast  as  are  the  achievements  we  have 
just  passed  in  review,  the  gaps  in  our  know- 
ledge are  immense,  and  every  problem  that  is 
solved  but  opens  a  dozen  new  problems  that 
await  solution.  Under  such  circumstances  there 
is  no  likelihood  that  the  last  word  will  soon  be 
said  on  any  subject.  In  the  eyes  of  the  twenty- 
first  century  the  science  of  the  nineteenth  will 
doubtless  seem  very  fragmentary  and  crude. 
But  the  men  of  that  day,  and  of  all  future  time, 
will  no  doubt  point  back  to  the  age  just  passing 
^  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  i.  ch.  viii. 
127 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

away  as  the  opening  of  a  new  dispensation,  the 
dawning  of  an  era  in  which  the  intellectual  de- 
velopment of  mankind  was  raised  to  a  higher 
plane  than  that  upon  which  it  had  hitherto  pro- 
ceeded. 

As  the  inevitable  result  of  the  thronging  dis- 
coveries just  enumerated,  we  find  ourselves  in 
the  midst  of  a  mighty  revolution  in  human 
thought.  Time-honoured  creeds  are  losing  their 
hold  upon  men ;  ancient  symbols  are  shorn  of 
their  value ;  everything  is  called  in  question. 
The  controversies  of  the  day  are  not  like  those 
of  former  times.  It  is  no  longer  a  question  of 
hermeneutics,  no  longer  a  struggle  between 
abstruse  dogmas  of  rival  churches.  Religion 
itself  is  called  upon  to  show  why  it  should  any 
longer  claim  our  allegiance.  There  are  those 
who  deny  the  existence  of  God.  There  are 
those  who  would  explain  away  the  human  soul 
as  a  mere  group  of  fleeting  phenomena  attendant 
upon  the  collocation  of  sundry  particles  of  mat- 
ter. And  there  are  many  others  who,  without 
committing  themselves  to  these  positions  of  the 
atheist  and  the  materialist,  have  nevertheless 
come  to  regard  religion  as  practically  ruled  out 
from  human  affairs.  No  religious  creed  that 
man  has  ever  devised  can  be  made  to  harmonize 
in  all  its  features  with  modern  knowledge.  All 
such  creeds  were  constructed  with  reference  to 
theories  of  the  universe  which  are  now  utterly 
128 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

and  hopelessly  discredited.  How,  then,  it  is 
asked,  amid  the  general  wreck  of  old  beliefs,  can 
we  hope  that  the  religious  attitude  in  which 
from  time  immemorial  we  have  been  wont  to 
contemplate  the  universe  can  any  longer  be 
maintained  ?  Is  not  the  belief  in  God  perhaps 
a  dream  of  the  childhood  of  our  race,  like  the 
belief  in  elves  and  bogarts  which  once  was  no 
less  universal  ?  and  is  not  modern  science  fast 
destroying  the  one  as  it  has  already  destroyed 
the  other  ? 

Such  are  the  questions  which  we  daily  hear 
asked,  sometimes  with  flippant  eagerness,  but 
oftener  with  anxious  dread.  In  view  of  them  it 
is  well  worth  while  to  examine  the  idea  of  God, 
as  it  has  been  entertained  by  mankind  from  the 
earliest  ages,  and  as  it  is  affected  by  the  know- 
ledge of  the  universe  which  we  have  acquired  in 
recent  times.  If  we  find  in  that  idea,  as  con- 
ceived by  untaught  thinkers  in  the  twilight  of 
antiquity,  an  element  that  still  survives  the 
widest  and  deepest  generalizations  of  modern 
times,  we  have  the  strongest  possible  reason  for 
believing  that  the  idea  is  permanent  and  answers 
to  an  Eternal  Reality.  It  was  to  be  expected 
that  conceptions  of  Deity  handed  down  from 
primitive  men  should  undergo  serious  modifica- 
tion. If  it  can  be  shown  that  the  essential  element 
in  these  conceptions  must  survive  the  enormous 
additions  to  our  knowledge  which  have  distin- 

129 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

guished  the  present  age  above  all  others  since 
man  became  man,  then  we  may  believe  that  it 
will  endure  so  long  as  man  endures  ;  for  it  is 
not  likely  that  it  can  ever  be  called  upon  to  pass 
a  severer  ordeal. 

All  this  will  presently  appear  in  a  still  stronger 
light,  when  we  have  set  forth  the  common  char- 
acteristic of  the  modifications  which  the  idea  of 
God  has  already  undergone,  and  the  nature  of 
the  opposition  between  the  old  and  the  new 
knowledge  with  which  we  are  now  confronted. 
Upon  this  discussion  we  have  now  to  enter,  and 
we  shall  find  it  leading  us  to  the  conclusion  that 
throughout  all  possible  advances  in  human 
knowledge,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the  essential 
position  of  theism  must  remain  unshaken. 


130 


Ill 

SOURCES  OF  THE  THEISTIC  IDEA 

OUR  argument  may  fitly  begin  with  an 
inquiry  into  the  sources  of  the  theistic 
idea  and  the  shape  which  it  has  univer- 
sally assumed  among  untutored  men.  The  most 
primitive  element  which  it  contains  is  doubtless 
the  notion  of  dependence  upon  something  outside 
of  ourselves.  We  are  born  into  a  world  con- 
sisting of  forces  which  sway  our  lives  and  over 
which  we  can  exercise  no  control.  The  indi- 
vidual man  can  indeed  make  his  volition  count 
for  a  very  little  in  modifying  the  course  of  events, 
but  this  end  necessitates  strict  and  unceasing 
obedience  to  powers  that  cannot  be  tampered 
with.  To  the  behaviour  of  these  external  powers 
our  actions  must  be  adapted  under  penalty  of 
death.  And  upon  grounds  no  less  firm  than 
those  on  which  we  believe  in  any  externality 
whatever,  we  recognize  that  these  forces  ante- 
dated our  birth  and  will  endure  after  we  have 
disappeared  from  the  scene.  No  one  supposes 
that  he  makes  the  world  for  himself,  so  that  it 
is  born  and  dies  with  him.  Every  one  perforce 
contemplates   the  world  as  something  existing 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

independently  of  himself,  as  something  into 
which  he  has  come,  and  from  which  he  is  to 
go ;  and  for  his  coming  and  his  going,  as  well 
as  for  what  he  does  while  part  of  the  world, 
he  is  dependent  upon  something  that  is  not 
himself. 

Between  ancient  and  modern  man,  as  between 
the  child  and  the  adult,  there  can  be  no  essential 
difference  in  the  recognition  of  this  fundamental 
fact  of  life.  The  primitive  man  could  not,  in- 
deed, state  the  case  in  this  generalized  form,  any 
more  than  a  young  child  could  state  it,  but  the 
facts  which  the  statement  covers  were  as  real  to 
him  as  they  are  to  us.^  The  primitive  man  knew 
nothing  of  a  world,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
word.  The  conception  of  that  vast  consensus 
of  forces  which  we  call  the  world  or  universe  is 
a  somewhat  late  result  of  culture  ;  it  was  reached 
only  through  ages  of  experience  and  reflection. 
Such  an  idea  lay  beyond  the  horizon  of  the 
primitive  man.  But  while  he  knew  not  the 
world,  he  knew  bits  and  pieces  of  it ;  or,  to  vary 
the  expression,  he  had  his  little  world,  chaotic 
and  fragmentary  enough,  but  full  of  dread  real- 
ity for  him.  He  knew  what  it  was  to  deal  from 
birth  until  death  with  powers  far  mightier  than 
himself.  To  explain  these  powers,  to  make  their 
actions  in  any  wise  intelligible,  he  had  but  one 
available  resource  ;  and  this  was  so  obvious  that 

*  See  note  A  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 
132 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

he  could  not  fail  to  employ  it.  The  only  source 
of  action  of  which  he  knew  anything,  since  it  was 
the  only  source  which  lay  within  himself,  was 
the  human  will  ;  ^  and  in  this  respect,  after  all, 
the  philosophy  of  the  primeval  savage  was  not 
so  very  far  removed  from  that  of  the  modern 
scientific  thinker.  The  primitive  man  could  see 
that  his  own  actions  were  prompted  by  desire 
and  guided  by  intelligence,  and  he  supposed  the 
same  to  be  the  case  with  the  sun  and  the  wind, 
the  frost  and  the  lightning.  All  the  forces  of 
outward  nature,  so  far  as  they  came  into  visible 
contact  with  his  life,  he  personified  as  great  be- 
ings which  were  to  be  contended  with  or  placated. 
This  primeval  philosophy,  once  universal  among 
men,  has  lasted  far  into  the  historic  period,  and 
it  is  only  slowly  and  bit  by  bit  that  it  has  been 
outgrown  by  the  most  highly  civilized  races. 
Indeed  the  half-civilized  majority  of  mankind 
have  by  no  means  as  yet  cast  it  aside,  and  among 
savage  tribes  we  may  still  see  it  persisting  in  all 
its  original  crudity.  In  the  mythologies  of  all 
peoples,  of  the  Greeks  and  Hindus  and  Norse- 
men, as  well  as  of  the  North  American  Indians 
and  the  dwellers  in  the  South  Sea  Islands,  we 
find  the  sun  personified  as  an  archer  or  wanderer, 
the  clouds  as  gigantic  birds,  the  tempest  as  a 
devouring  dragon  ;  and  the  tales  of  gods  and 
heroes,  as  well  as  of  trolls  and  fairies,  arc  made 

*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  i.  ch.  vi.,  vii. 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

up  of  scattered  and  distorted  fragments  of  na- 
ture myths,  of  which  the  primitive  meaning  had 
long  been  forgotten  when  the  ingenuity  of  mod- 
ern scholarship  laid  it  bare.^ 

In  all  this  personification  of  physical  phe- 
nomena our  prehistoric  ancestors  were  greatly 
assisted  by  that  theory  of  ghosts  which  was  per- 
haps the  earliest  speculative  effort  of  the  human 
mind.  Travellers  have  now  and  then  reported 
the  existence  of  races  of  men  quite  destitute  of 
religion,  or  of  what  the  observer  has  learned  to 
recognize  as  religion  ;  but  no  one  has  ever  dis- 
covered a  race  of  men  devoid  of  a  belief  in  ghosts. 
The  mass  of  crude  inference  which  makes  up 
the  savage's  philosophy  of  nature  is  largely 
based  upon  the  hypothesis  that  every  man  has 
another  selfy  a  double,  or  wraith,  or  ghost.  This 
"  hypothesis  of  the  other  selfy  which  serves  to 
account  for  the  savage's  wanderings  during  sleep 
in  strange  lands  and  among  strange  people, 
serves  also  to  account  for  the  presence  in  his 
dreams  of  parents,  comrades,  or  enemies,  known 
to  be  dead  and  buried.  The  other  self  of  the 
dreamer  meets  and  converses  with  the  other 
selves  of  his  dead  brethren,  joins  with  them  in 
the  hunt,  or  sits  down  with  them  to  the  wild 
cannibal  banquet.  Thus  arises  the  belief  in  an 
ever-present  world  of  ghosts,  a  belief  which  the 
entire    experience  of  uncivilized  man  goes  to 

*   Mphs  and  Myth-Makers^  i. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

strengthen  and  expand."  ^  Countless  tales  and 
superstitions  of  savage  races  show  that  the  hypo- 
thesis of  the  other  self  is  used  to  explain  the 
phenomena  of  hysteria  and  epilepsy,  of  shadows, 
of  echoes,  and  even  of  the  reflection  of  face 
and  gestures  in  still  water.  It  is  not  only  men, 
moreover,  who  are  provided  with  other  selves. 
Dumb  beasts  and  plants,  stone  hatchets  and 
arrows,  articles  of  clothing  and  food,  all  have 
their  ghosts  ;  ^  and  when  the  dead  chief  is  buried, 
his  wives  and  servants,  his  dogs  and  horses,  are 
slain  to  keep  him  company,  and  weapons  and 
trinkets  are  placed  in  his  tomb  to  be  used  in  the 
spirit  land.  Burial  places  of  primitive  men,  ages 
before  the  dawn  of  history,  bear  testimony  to 
the  immense  antiquity  of  this  savage  philosophy. 
From  this  wholesale  belief  in  ghosts  to  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  wind  or  the  lightning  as  a 
person  animated  by  an  indwelling  soul  and  en- 
dowed with  quasi-human  passions  and  purposes, 
the  step  is  not  a  long  one.  The  latter  notion 
grows  almost  inevitably  out  of  the  former,  so 
that  all  races  of  men  without  exception  have 
entertained  it.  That  the  mighty  power  which 
uproots  trees  and  drives  the  storm-clouds  across 
the  sky  should  resemble  a  human  soul  is  to  the 
savage  an  unavoidable  inference.  "If  the  fire 
burns  down  his  hut,  it  is  because  the  fire  is  a 
person  with  a  soul,  and  is  angry  with  him,  and 
*   Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  vii.  ^  Ibid. 

^2S 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

needs  to  be  coaxed  into  a  kindlier  mood  by  means 
of  prayer  or  sacrifice."  He  has  no  alternative  but 
to  regard  fire-soul  as  something  akin  to  human- 
soul  ;  his  philosophy  makes  no  distinction  be- 
tween the  human  ghost  and  the  elemental  demon 
or  deity. 

It  was  in  accordance  with  this  primitive  theory 
of  things  that  the  earliest  form  of  religious  wor- 
ship was  developed.  In  all  races  of  men,  so  far 
as  can  be  determined,  this  was  the  worship  of 
ancestors.*  The  other  self  of  the  dead  chieftain 
continued  after  death  to  watch  over  the  inter- 
ests of  the  tribe,  to  defend  it  against  the  attacks 
of  enemies,  to  reward  brave  warriors,  and  to 
punish  traitors  and  cowards.  His  favour  must 
be  propitiated  with  ceremonies  like  those  in 
which  a  subject  does  homage  to  a  living  ruler. 
If  offended  by  neglect  or  irreverent  treatment, 
defeat  in  battle,  damage  by  flood  or  fire,  visita- 
tions of  famine  or  pestilence,  were  interpreted 
as  marks  of  his  anger.  Thus  the  spirits  animat- 
ing the  forces  of  nature  were  often  identified 
with  the  ghosts  of  ancestors,  and  mythology  is 
filled  with  traces  of  the  confusion.  In  the  Vedic 
religion  the  pitris,  or  "  fathers,"  live  in  the  sky 
along  with  Yama,  the  original  pitri  of  mankind  : 
they  are  very  busy  with  the  weather  ;  they  send 
down  rain  to  refresh  the  thirsty  earth,  or  anon 

*  Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  vii.  ;   Excursions  of  an  Ev<f 
lutionistf  vs.. 

136 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

parch  the  fields  till  the  crops  perish  of  drought; 
and  they  rush  along  in  the  roaring  tempest,  like 
the  weird  host  of  the  wild  huntsman  Wodan. 
To  the  ancient  Greek  the  blue  sky  Uranos  was 
the  father  of  gods  and  men,  and  throughout 
antiquity  this  mingling  of  ancestor  worship  with 
nature  worship  was  general.  With  the  syste- 
matic development  of  ethnic  religions,  in  some 
instances  ancestor  worship  remained  dominant, 
as  with  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese,  and  the 
Romans  ;  in  others,  a  polytheism  based  upon 
nature  worship  acquired  supremacy,  as  with  the 
Hindus  and  Greeks,  and  our  own  Teutonic 
forefathers.  The  great  divinities  of  the  Hel- 
lenic pantheon  are  all  personifications  of  phy- 
sical phenomena.  At  a  comparatively  late  date 
the  Roman  adopted  these  divinities  and  paid 
to  them  a  fashionable  and  literary  homage,  but 
his  solemn  and  heartfelt  rites  were  those  with 
which  he  worshipped  the  lares  and  penates  m 
the  privacy  of  his  home.  His  hospitable  treat- 
ment of  the  gods  of  a  vanquished  people  was 
the  symptom  of  a  commingling  of  the  various 
local  religions  of  antiquity  which  insured  their 
mutual  destruction  and  prepared  the  way  for 
their  absorption  into  a  far  grander  and  truer 
system.^ 

*  American  Political  Ideas,  i. 


137 


IV 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  MONOTHEISM 

SUCH  an  allusion  to  the  Romans,  in  an 
exposition  like  the  present  one,  is  not 
without  its  significance.  It  was  partly 
through  political  circumstances  that  a  truly 
theistic  idea  was  developed  out  of  the  chaotic 
and  fragmentary  ghost  theories  and  nature-wor- 
ship of  the  primeval  world.  To  the  framing  of 
the  vastest  of  all  possible  conceptions,  the  idea  of 
God,  man  came  but  slowly.  This  nature-worship 
and  ancestor-worship  of  early  times  was  scarcely 
theism.  In  their  recognition  of  man's  utter  de- 
pendence upon  something  outside  of  himself 
which  yet  was  not  wholly  unlike  himself,  these 
primitive  religions  contained  the  essential  germ 
out  of  which  theism  was  to  grow ;  but  it  is  a 
long  way  from  the  propitiation  of  ghosts  and  the 
adoration  of  the  rising  sun  to  the  worship  of  the 
infinite  and  eternal  God,  the  maker  of  heaven 
and  earth,  in  whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being.  Before  men  could  arrive  at  such  a 
conception,  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  obtain 
some  integral  idea  of  the  heaven  and  the  earth  ; 
it  was  necessary  for  them  to  frame,  however  in- 

•38 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

adequately,  the  conception  of  a  physical  universe. 
Such  a  conception  had  been  reached  by  civilized 
peoples  before  the  Christian  era,  and  by  the 
Greeks  a  remarkable  beginning  had  been  made 
in  the  generalization  and  interpretation  of  physi- 
cal phenomena.  The  intellectual  atmosphere  of 
Alexandria,  for  two  centuries  before  and  three 
centuries  after  the  time  of  Christ,  was  more 
modern  than  anything  that  followed  down  to 
the  days  of  Bacon  and  Descartes ;  and  all  the 
leaders  of  Greek  thought  since  Anaxagoras  had 
been  virtually  or  avowedly  monotheists.  As  the 
phenomena  of  nature  were  generalized,  the 
deities  or  superhuman  beings  regarded  as  their 
sources  were  likewise  generalized,  until  the  con- 
ception of  nature  as  a  whole  gave  rise  to  the 
conception  of  a  single  Deity  as  the  author  and 
ruler  of  nature ;  and  in  accordance  with  the 
order  of  its  genesis,  this  notion  of  Deity  was 
still  the  notion  of  a  Being  possessed  of  psychical 
attributes,  and  in  some  way  like  unto  Man. 

But  there  was  another  cause,  besides  scien- 
tific generalization,  which  led  men's  minds  to- 
ward monotheism.  The  conception  of  tutelar 
deities,  which  was  the  most  prominent  practical 
feature  of  ancestor-worship,  was  directly  affected 
by  the  political  development  of  the  peoples  of 
antiquity.  As  tribes  were  consolidated  into  na- 
tions, the  tutelar  gods  of  the  tribes  became  gen- 
eralized, or  the  god  of  some  leading  tribe  came 
139 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

to  supersede  his  fellows,  until  the  result  was  a 
single  national  Deity,  at  first  regarded  as  the 
greatest  among  gods,  afterwards  as  the  only  God. 
The  most  striking  instance  of  this  method  of 
development  is  afforded  by  the  Hebrew  con- 
ception of  Jehovah.  The  most  primitive  form 
of  Hebrew  religion  discernible  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament is  a  fetichism,  or  very  crude  polytheism, 
in  which  ancestor-worship  becomes  more  promi- 
nent than  nature-worship.  At  first  the  teraphim^ 
or  tutelar  household  deities,  play  an  important 
part,  but  nature-gods,  such  as  Baal,  and  Moloch, 
and  Astarte,  are  extensively  worshipped.  It  is 
the  plural  elohim  who  create  the  earth,  and  whose 
sons  visit  the  daughters  of  antediluvian  men. 
The  tutelar  deity,  Jehovah,  is  originally  thought 
of  as  one  o^tho.  elohim ,  then  as  chief  among  i?/(?,^/»?, 
and  Lord  of  the  hosts  of  heaven.  Through  his 
favour  his  chosen  prophet  overcomes  the  pro- 
phets of  Baal,  he  is  greater  than  the  deities  of 
neighbouring  peoples,  he  is  the  only  true  god, 
and  thus  finally  he  is  thought  of  as  the  only 
God,  and  his  name  becomes  the  symbol  of 
monotheism.  The  Jews  have  always  been  one 
of  the  most  highly  gifted  races  in  the  world. 
In  antiquity  they  developed  an  Intense  senti- 
ment of  nationality,  and  for  earnestness  and 
depth  of  ethical  feeling  they  surpassed  all  other 
peoples.  The  conception  of  Jehovah  set  forth 
in  the  writings  of  the  prophets  was  the  loftiest 
140 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

conception  of  Deity  anywhere  attained  before  the 
time  of  Christ ;  in  ethical  value  it  immeasurably 
surpassed  anything  to  be  found  in  the  pantheon 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  It  was  natural  that 
such  a  conception  of  Deity  should  be  adopted 
throughout  the  Roman  world.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era  the  classic  polytheism  had 
well-nigh  lost  its  hold  upon  men's  minds  ;  its 
value  had  become  chiefly  literary,  as  a  mere  col- 
lection of  pretty  stories  ;  it  had  begun  its  descent 
into  the  humble  realm  of  folk-lore.  For  want  of 
anything  better  people  had  recourse  to  elaborate 
Eastern  ceremonials,  or  contented  themselves 
with  the  time-honoured  domestic  worship  of 
the  lares  and  penates.  Yet  their  minds  were  ripe 
for  some  kind  of  monotheism,  and  in  order  that 
the  Jewish  conception  should  come  to  be  gen- 
erally adopted,  it  was  only  necessary  that  it 
should  be  freed  from  its  limitations  of  national- 
ity, and  that  Jehovah  should  be  set  forth  as 
Sustainer  of  the  universe  and  Father  of  all  man- 
kind. This  was  done  by  Jesus  and  Paul.  The 
theory  of  divine  action  implied  throughout  the 
gospels  and  the  epistles  was  the  first  complete 
monotheism  attained  by  mankind,  or  at  least 
by  that  portion  of  it  from  which  our  modern 
civilization  has  descended.  Here  for  the  first 
time  we  have  the  idea  of  God  dissociated  from 
the  limiting  circumstances  with  which  it  had 
been  entangled  in  all  the  ethnic  religions  of  an- 
141 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

tiquity.  Individual  thinkers  here  and  there  had 
already,  doubtless,  reached  an  equally  true  con- 
ception, as  was  shown  by  Kleanthes  in  his  sub- 
lime hymn  to  Zeus  ;  *  but  it  was  now  for  the 
first  time  set  forth  in  such  wise  as  to  win  assent 
from  the  common  folk  as  well  as  the  philosophers, 
and  to  make  its  way  into  the  hearts  of  all  men. 
Its  acceptance  was  hastened,  and  its  hold  upon 
mankind  immeasurably  strengthened,  by  the  di- 
vinely beautiful  ethical  teaching  in  which  Jesus 
couched  it,  —  that  teaching,  so  often  misunder- 
stood yet  so  profoundly  true,  which  heralded 
the  time  when  Man  shall  have  thrown  off  the 
burden  of  his  bestial  inheritance  and,  strife  and 
sorrow  shall  cease  from  the  earth.^ 

We  shall  presently  see  that  in  its  fundamental 
features  the  theism  of  Jesus  and  Paul  was  so 
true  that  it  must  endure  as  long  as  man  en- 
dures. Changes  of  statement  may  alter  the  out- 
ward appearance  of  it,  but  the  kernel  of  truth 
will  remain  the  same  forever.  But  the  shifting 
body  of  religious  doctrine  known  as  Christian- 
ity has  at  various  times  contained  much  that  is 
unknown  to  this  pure  theism,  and  much  that 
has  shown  itself  to  be  ephemeral  in  its  hold 
upon  men.  The  change  from  polytheism  to 
monotheism  could  not  be  thoroughly  accom- 
plished all  at  once.    As  Christianity  spread  over 

^   The  Unseen  World,  and  other  Essay ^  i. 
2  See  above,  pp.  7  3-7  5  • 
142 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

the  Roman  world  it  became  encrusted  with  pa- 
gan notions  and  observances,  and  a  similar  pro- 
cess went  on  during  the  conversion  of  the  Teu- 
tonic barbarians.  Yuletide  and  Easter  and  other 
church  holidays  were  directly  adopted  from  the 
old  nature-worship  ;  the  adoration  of  tutelar 
household  deities  survived  in  the  homage  paid 
to  patron  saints ;  and  the  worship  of  the  Bere- 
cynthian  Mother  was  continued  in  that  of  the 
Virgin  Mary/  Even  the  name  God^  applied  to 
the  Deity  throughout  Teutonic  Christendom, 
seems  to  be  neither  more  nor  less  than  IVodan, 
the  personification  of  the  storm-wind,  the  su- 
preme divinity  of  our  pagan  forefathers.^ 

That  Christianity  should  thus  have  retained 
names  and  symbols  and  rites  belonging  to  hea- 
then antiquity  was  inevitable.  The  system  of 
Christian  theism  was  the  work  of  some  of  the 
loftiest  minds  that  have  ever  appeared  upon  the 
earth ;  but  it  was  adopted  by  millions  of  men 
and  women,  of  all  degrees  of  knowledge  and 
ignorance,  of  keenness  and  dulness,  of  spiritu- 
ality and  grossness,  and  these  brought  to  it  their 
various  inherited  notions  and  habits  of  thought. 
In  all  its  ages,  therefore.  Christian  theism  has 
meant  one  thing  to  one  person,  and  another 
thing  to  another.  While  the  highest  Christian 
minds  have  always  been  monotheistic,  the  mul- 

^  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist,  ix. 
2  See  note  B  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

titude  have  outgrown  polytheism  but  slowly ; 
and  even  the  monotheism  of  the  highest  minds 
has  been  coloured  by  notions  ultimately  derived 
from  the  primeval  ghost-world  which  have  inter- 
fered with  its  purity,  and  have  seriously  ham- 
pered men  in  their  search  after  truth. 

In  illustration  of  this  point  we  have  now  to 
notice  two  strongly  contrasted  views  of  the  di- 
vine nature  which  have  been  held  by  Christian 
theists,  and  to  observe  their  bearings  upon  the 
scientific  thought  of  modern  times. 


144 


V 

THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  AS  IMMANENT 
IN  THE  WORLD 

WE  have  seen  that  since  the  primitive 
savage  philosophy  did  not  distin- 
guish between  the  human  ghost  and 
the  elemental  daemon  or  deity,  the  religion  of 
antiquity  was  an  inextricable  tangle  of  ancestor- 
worship  with  nature-worship.  Nevertheless, 
among  some  peoples  the  one,  among  others  the 
other,  became  predominant.  I  think  it  can 
hardly  be  an  accidental  coincidence  that  nature- 
worship  predominated  with  the  Greeks  and 
Hindus,  the  only  peoples  of  antiquity  who  ac- 
complished anything  in  the  exact  sciences,  or  in 
metaphysics.  The  capacity  for  abstract  thinking 
which  led  the  Hindu  to  originate  algebra,  and 
the  Greek  to  originate  geometry,  and  both  to 
attempt  elaborate  scientific  theories  of  the  uni- 
verse, —  this  same  capacity  revealed  itself  in  the 
manner  in  which  they  deified  the  powers  of  na- 
ture. They  were  able  to  imagine  the  indwelling 
spirit  of  the  sun  or  the  storm  without  help  from 
the  conception  of  an  individual  ghost.  Such  be- 
ing the  general  capacity  of  the  people,  we  can 

145 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

readily  understand  how,  when  it  came  to  mono- 
theism, their  most  eminent  thinkers  should  have 
been  able  to  frame  the  conception  of  God  act- 
ing in  and  through  the  powers  of  nature,  with- 
out the  aid  of  any  grossly  anthropomorphic 
symbolism.  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting 
to  observe  the  characteristics  of  the  idea  of  God 
as  conceived  by  the  three  greatest  fathers  of  the 
Greek  church,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen, 
and  Athanasius.  The  philosophy  of  these  pro- 
found and  vigorous  thinkers  was  in  large  mea- 
sure derived  from  the  Stoics.  They  regarded 
Deity  as  immanent  in  the  universe,  and  eter- 
nally operating  through  natural  laws.  In  their 
view  God  is  not  a  localizable  personality,  remote 
from  the  world,  and  acting  upon  it  only  by 
means  of  occasional  portent  and  prodigy  ;  nor 
is  the  world  a  lifeless  machine  blindly  working 
after  some  preordained  method,  and  only  feel- 
ing the  presence  of  God  in  so  far  as  he  now  and 
then  sees  fit  to  interfere  with  its  normal  course 
of  procedure.  On  the  contrary,  God  is  the' 
ever  present  life  of  the  world  ;  it  is  through 
him  that  all  things  exist  from  moment  to  mo-' 
ment,  and  the  natural  sequence  of  events  is  a 
perpetual  revelation  of  the  divine  wisdom  and 
goodness.  In  accordance  with  this  fundamen- 
tal view,  Clement,  for  example,  repudiated  the 
Gnostic  theory  of  the  vileness  of  matter,  con- 
demned asceticism,  and  regarded  the  world  as 
146 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

hallowed  by  the  presence  of  indwelling  Deity. 
Knowing  no  distinction  "  between  what  man 
discovers  and  what  God  reveals,"  he  explained 
Christianity  as  a  natural  development  from  the 
earlier  religious  thought  of  mankind.  It  was 
essential  to  his  idea  of  the  divine  perfection  that 
the  past  should  contain  within  itself  all  the 
germs  of  the  future ;  and  accordingly  he  attached 
but  slight  value  to  tales  of  miracle,  and  looked 
upon  salvation  as  the  normal  ripening  of  the 
higher  spiritual  qualities  of  man  "  under  the 
guidance  of  immanent  Deity."  The  views  of 
Clement's  disciple  Origen  are  much  like  those 
of  his  master.  Athanasius  ventured  much  far- 
ther into  the  bewildering  regions  of  metaphy- 
sics. Yet  in  his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  by 
which  he  overcame  the  visible  tendency  toward 
polytheism  in  the  theories  of  Arius,  and  averted 
the  threatened  danger  of  a  compromise  between 
Christianity  and  Paganism,  he  proceeded  upon 
the  lines  which  Clement  had  marked  out.  In 
his  very  suggestive  work  on  "  The  Continuity 
of  Christian  Thought,"  Professor  Alexander 
Allen  thus  sets  forth  the  Athanasian  point  of 
view:  "In  the  formula  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  as  three  distinct  and  coequal  mem- 
bers in  the  one  divine  essence,  there  was  the  re- 
cognition and  the  reconciliation  of  the  philo- 
sophical schools  which  had  divided  the  ancient 
world.    In  the  idea  of  the  eternal  Father  the 

H7 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Oriental  mind  recognized  what  it  liked  to  call 
the  profound  abyss  of  being,  that  which  lies 
back  of  all  phenomena,  the  hidden  mystery 
which  lends  awe  to  human  minds  seeking  to 
know  the  divine.  In  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal 
Son  revealing  the  Father,  immanent  in  nature 
and  humanity  as  the  life  and  light  shining 
through  all  created  things,  the  divine  reason  in 
which  the  human  reason  shares,  there  was  the 
recognition  of  the  truth  after  which  Plato  and 
Aristotle  and  the  Stoics  were  struggling,  —  the 
tie  which  binds  the  creation  to  God  in  the  clos- 
est organic  relationship.  In  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  the  church  guarded  against  any 
pantheistic  confusion  of  God  with  the  world  by 
upholding  the  life  of  the  manifested  Deity  as 
essentially  ethical  or  spiritual,  revealing  itself  in 
humanity  in  its  highest  form,  only  in  so  far  as 
humanity  recognized  its  calling  and  through 
the  Spirit  entered  into  communion  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son." 

Great  as  was  the  service  which  these  views 
of  Athanasius  rendered  in  the  fourth  century 
of  our  era,  they  are  scarcely  to  be  regarded  as 
a  permanent  or  essential  feature  of  Christian 
theism.  The  metaphysic  in  which  they  are 
couched  is  alien  to  the  metaphysic  of  our  time, 
yet  through  this  vast  difference  it  is  all  the 
more  instructive  to  note  how  closely  Athanasius 
approaches  the  confines  of  modern  scientific 
148 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

thought,  simply  through  his  fundamental  con- 
ception of  God  as  the  indwelling  life  of  the  uni- 
verse. We  shall  be  still  more  forcibly  struck 
with  this  similarity  when  we  come  to  consider 
the  character  impressed  upon  our  idea  of  God 
by  the  modern  doctrine  of  evolution. 


149 


VI 

THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  AS  REMOTE 
FROM  THE  WORLD 

BUT  this  Greek  conception  of  divine  im- 
manence did  not  find  favour  with  the 
Latin-speaking  world.  There  a  very  dif- 
ferent notion  prevailed,  the  origin  of  which  may- 
be traced  to  the  mental  habits  attending  the 
primitive  ancestor-worship.  Out  of  materials 
furnished  by  the  ghost-world  a  crude  kind  of 
monotheism  could  be  reached  by  simply  carry- 
ing back  the  thought  to  a  single  ghost-deity  as 
the  original  ancestor  of  all  the  others.  Some 
barbarous  races  have  gone  as  far  as  this,  as  for 
example  the  Zulus,  who  have  developed  the 
doctrine  of  divine  ancestors  so  far  as  to  recog- 
nize a  first  ancestor,  the  Great  Father,  Unku- 
lunkulu,  who  created  the  world.^  The  kind  of 
theism  reached  by  this  process  of  thought  differs 
essentially  from  the  theism  reached  through  the 
medium  of  nature-worship.  For  whereas  in  the 
latter  case  the  god  of  the  sky  or  the  sea  is 
regarded  as  a  mysterious  spirit  acting  in  and 
through  the  phenomena,  in  the  former  case  the 

1  Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  vii. 
150 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

phenomena  are  regarded  as  coerced  into  activity 
by  some  power  existing  outside  of  them,  and 
this  power  is  conceived  as  manlike  in  the  crud- 
est sense,  having  been  originally  thought  of  as 
the  ghost  of  some  man  who  once  lived  upon 
the  earth.  In  the  monotheism  which  is  reached 
by  thinking  along  these  lines  of  inference,  the 
universe  is  conceived  as  an  inert  lifeless  machine, 
impelled  by  blind  forces  which  have  been  set 
acting  from  without ;  and  God  is  conceived  as 
existing  apart  from  the  world  in  solitary  inacces- 
sible majesty,  —  "  an  absentee  God,"  as  Carlyle 
says,  "  sitting  idle  ever  since  the  first  Sabbath, 
at  the  outside  of  his  universe,  and  *  seeing  it 
go.*  "  This  conception  demands  less  of  the  in- 
tellect than  the  conception  of  God  as  immanent 
in  the  universe.  It  requires  less  grasp  of  mind 
and  less  width  of  experience,  and  it  has  accord- 
ingly been  much  the  more  common  conception. 
The  idea  of  the  indwelling  God  is  an  attempt 
to  reach  out  toward  the  reality,  and  as  such  it 
taxes  the  powers  of  the  finite  mind.  The  idea 
of  God  external  to  the  universe  is  a  symbol 
which  in  no  wise  approaches  the  reality,  and 
for  that  very  reason  it  does  not  tax  the  mental 
powers ;  there  is  an  aspect  of  finality  about  it, 
in  which  the  ordinary  mind  rests  content  and 
complains  of  whatever  seeks  to  disturb  its  re- 
pose. 

I  must  not  be  understood  as  ignoring  the  fact 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

that  this  lower  species  of  theism  has  been  en- 
tertained by  some  of  the  loftiest  minds  of  our 
race,  both  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times. 
When  once  such  an  ever  present  conception  as 
the  idea  of  God  has  become  intertwined  with 
the  whole  body  of  the  thoughts  of  mankind,  it 
is  very  difficult  for  the  most  powerful  and  subtle 
intelligence  to  change  the  form  it  has  taken. 
It  has  become  so  far  organized  into  the  texture 
of  the  mind  that  it  abides  there  unconsciously, 
like  our  fundamental  axioms  about  number  and 
magnitude ;  it  sways  our  thought  hither  and 
thither  without  our  knowing  it.  The  two  forms 
of  theism  here  contrasted  have  slowly  grown  up 
under  the  myriad  unassignable  influences  that 
in  antiquity  caused  nature-worship  to  predomi- 
nate among  some  people  and  ancestor-worship 
among  others  ;  they  have  coloured  all  the  phi- 
losophizing that  has  been  done  for  more  than 
twenty  centuries  ;  and  it  is  seldom  that  a  thinker 
educated  under  the  one  form  ever  comes  to 
adopt  the  other  and  habitually  employ  it,  save 
under  the  mighty  influence  of  modern  science, 
the  tendency  of  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
is  all  in  one  direction. 

Among  ancient  thinkers  the  view  of  Deity 
as  remote  from  the  world  prevailed  with  the 
followers  of  Epikuros,  who  held  that  the  im- 
mortal gods  could  not  be  supposed  to  trouble 
themselves  about  the  paltry  affairs  of  men,  but 
152 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

lived  a  blessed  life  of  their  own,  undisturbed  in 
the  far-off  empyrean.  This  left  the  world  quite 
under  the  sway  of  blind  forces,  and  thus  we 
find  it  depicted  in  the  marvellous  poem  of  Lu- 
cretius, one  of  the  loftiest  monuments  of  Latin 
genius.  It  is  to  all  appearance  an  atheistic  world, 
albeit  the  author  was  perhaps  more  profoundly 
religious  in  spirit  than  any  other  Roman  that 
ever  lived,  save  Augustine ;  yet  to  his  immediate 
scientific  purpose  this  atheism  was  no  drawback. 
When  we  are  investigating  natural  phenomena, 
with  intent  to  explain  them  scientifically,  our 
proper  task  is  simply  to  ascertain  the  physical 
conditions  under  which  they  occur,  and  the  less 
we  meddle  with  metaphysics  or  theology  the 
better.  As  Laplace  said,  the  mathematician,  in 
solving  his  equations,  does  not  need  "  the  hypo- 
thesis of  God."^  To  the  scientific  investigator, 
as  such,  the  forces  of  nature  are  doubtless  blind, 
like  the  x  and  y  in  algebra,  but  this  is  only  so 
long  as  he  contents  himself  with  describing  their 
modes  of  operation ;  when  he  undertakes  to 
explain  them  philosophically,  as  we  shall  see,  he 
can  in  no  wise  dispense  with  his  theistic  hypo- 
thesis. The  Lucretian  philosophy,  therefore, 
admirable  as  a  scientific  coordination  of  such 
facts  about  the  physical  universe  as  were  then 
known,  goes  but  very  little  way  as  a  philosophy. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  atheism  fol- 
*  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  ii. 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

lowed  directly  from  that  species  of  theism  which 
placed  God  outside  of  his  universe.  We  shall 
find  the  case  of  modern  atheism  to  be  quite 
similar.  As  soon  as  this  crude  and  misleading 
conception  of  God  is  refuted,  as  the  whole  pro- 
gress of  scientific  knowledge  tends  to  refute  it, 
the  modern  atheist  or  positivist  falls  back  upon 
his  universe  of  blind  forces  and  contents  him- 
self with  it,  while  zealously  shouting  from  the 
housetops  that  this  is  the  whole  story. 

To  one  familiar  with  Christian  ideas,  the  no- 
tion that  Man  is  too  insignificant  a  creature  to 
be  worth  the  notice  of  Deity  seems  at  once 
pathetic  and  grotesque.  In  the  view  of  Plato, 
by  which  all  Christendom  has  been  powerfully 
influenced,  there  is  profound  pathos.  The  wick- 
edness and  misery  of  the  world  wrought  so 
strongly  upon  Plato's  keen  sympathies  and  deli- 
cate moral  sense  that  he  came  to  conclusions 
almost  as  gloomy  as  those  of  the  Buddhist  who 
regards  existence  as  an  evil.  In  the  Timaios  he 
depicts  the  material  world  as  essentially  vile; 
he  is  unable  to  think  of  the  pure  and  holy  Deity 
as  manifested  in  it,  and  he  accordingly  separates 
the  Creator  from  his  creation  by  the  whole 
breadth  of  infinitude.  This  view  passed  on  to 
the  Gnostics,  for  whom  the  puzzling  problem 
of  philosophy  was  how  to  explain  the  action  of 
the  spiritual  God  upon  the  material  universe. 
Sometimes  the  interval  was  bridged  by  mediat* 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

ing  aeons  or  emanations  partly  spiritual  and 
partly  material ;  sometimes  the  world  was  held 
to  be  the  work  of  the  devil,  and  in  no  sense 
divine.^  The  Greek  fathers  under  the  lead  of 
Clement,  espousing  the  higher  theism,  kept  clear 
of  this  torrent  of  Gnostic  thought;  but  upon 
Augustine  it  fell  with  full  force,  and  he  was 
carried  away  with  it.  In  his  earlier  writings  Au- 
gustine showed  himself  not  incapable  of  compre- 
hending the  views  of  Clement  and  Athanasius  ; 
but  his  intense  feeling  of  man's  wickedness 
dragged  him  irresistibly  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. In  his  doctrine  of  original  sin,  he  repre- 
sents humanity  as  cut  off  from  all  relationship 
with  God,  who  is  depicted  as  a  crudely  anthro- 
pomorphic Being  far  removed  from  the  uni- 
verse and  accessible  only  through  the  mediating 
offices  of  an  organized  church.  Compared  with 
the  thoughts  of  the  Greek  fathers  this  was  a  bar- 
baric conception,  but  it  was  suited  alike  to  the 
lower  grade  of  culture  in  western  Europe,  and  to 
the  Latin  political  genius,  which  in  the  decline  of 
the  Empire  was  already  occupying  itself  with 
its  great  and  beneficent  work  of  constructing  an 
imperial  Church.  For  these  reasons  the  Au- 
gustinian  theology  prevailed,  and  in  the  Dark 
Ages  which  followed  it  became  so  deeply  in- 
wrought into  the  innermost  fibres  of  Latin 
Christianity  that  it  remains  dominant  to-day 
*  The  Unseen  World,  and  other  Essays,  iv. 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

alike  in  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches.  With 
few  exceptions  every  child  born  of  Christian 
parents  in  western  Europe  or  in  America  grows 
up  with  an  idea  of  God  the  outlines  of  which 
were  engraven  upon  men's  minds  by  Augustine 
fifteen  centuries  ago.  Nay,  more,  it  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  three  fourths  of  the  body  of 
doctrine  currently  known  as  Christianity,  unwar- 
ranted by  Scripture  and  never  dreamed  of  by 
Christ  or  his  apostles,  first  took  coherent  shape 
in  the  writings  of  this  mighty  Roman,  who  was 
separated  from  the  apostolic  age  by  an  interval  of 
time  like  that  which  separates  us  from  the  in- 
vention of  printing  and  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica. The  idea  of  God  upon  which  all  this  Au- 
gustinian  doctrine  is  based  is  the  idea  of  a  Being 
actuated  by  human  passions  and  purposes,  lo- 
calizable  in  space  and  utterly  remote  from  that 
inert  machine,  the  universe  in  which  we  live, 
and  upon  which  He  acts  intermittently  through 
the  suspension  of  what  are  called  natural  laws. 
So  deeply  has  this  conception  penetrated  the 
thought  of  Christendom  that  we  continually 
find  it  at  the  bottom  of  the  speculations  and 
arguments  of  men  who  would  warmly  repudiate 
it  as  thus  stated  in  its  naked  outlines.  It  domi- 
nates the  reasonings  alike  of  believers  and  scep- 
tics, of  theists  and  atheists  ;  it  underlies  at  once 
the  objections  raised  by  orthodoxy  against  each 
new  step  in  science  and  the  assaults  made  by 
ij6 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

materialism  upon  every  religious  conception  of 
the  world  ;  and  thus  it  is  chiefly  responsible  for 
that  complicated  misunderstanding  which,  by  a 
lamentable  confusion  o*  thought,  is  commonly 
called  "  the  conflict  between  religion  and  sci- 
ence." 


157 


VII 

CONFLICT  BETWEEN  THE  TWO 
IDEAS,  COMMONLY  MISUNDER- 
STOOD AS  A  CONFLICT  BETWEEN 
RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE 

IN  illustration  of  the  mischief  that  has  been 
wrought  by  the  Augustinian  conception  of 
Deity,  we  may  cite  the  theological  objec- 
tions urged  against  the  Newtonian  theory  of 
gravitation  and  the  Darwinian  theory  of  natural 
selection.  Leibnitz,  who  as  a  mathematician  but 
little  inferior  to  Newton  himself  might  have 
been  expected  to  be  easily  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  the  theory  of  gravitation,  was  neverthe- 
less deterred  by  theological  scruples  from  ac- 
cepting it.  It  appeared  to  him  that  it  substi- 
tuted the  action  of  physical  forces  for  the  direct 
action  of  the  Deity.  Now  the  fallacy  of  this 
argument  of  Leibnitz  is  easy  to  detect.  It  lies 
in  a  metaphysical  misconception  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "  force."  "  Force  "  is  implicitly 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  entity  or  dsemon  which  has 
a  mode  of  action  distinguishable  from  that  of 
Deity  ;  otherwise  it  is  meaningless  to  speak  of 
substituting  the  one  for  the  other.    But  such  a 

158 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

personification  of  "  force  "  is  a  remnant  of  bar- 
baric thought,  in  no  wise  sanctioned  by  physical 
science.  When  astronomy  speaks  of  two  planets 
as  attracting  each  other  with  a  "  force  "  which 
varies  directly  as  their  masses  and  inversely  as 
the  squares  of  their  distances  apart,  it  simply 
uses  the  phrase  as  a  convenient  metaphor  by 
which  to  describe  the  manner  in  which  the  ob- 
served movements  of  the  two  bodies  occur.  It 
explains  that  in  presence  of  each  other  the  two 
bodies  are  observed  to  change  their  positions 
in  a  certain  specified  way,  and  this  is  all  that  it 
means.  This  is  all  that  a  strictly  scientific  hypo- 
thesis can  possibly  allege,  and  this  is  all  that 
observation  can  possibly  prove.  Whatever  goes 
beyond  this  and  imagines  or  asserts  a  kind  of 
"  pull  "  between  the  two  bodies,  is  not  science, 
but  metaphysics.  An  atheistic  metaphysics  may 
imagine  such  a  "  pull,"  and  may  interpret  it  as 
the  action  of  something  that  is  not  Deity,  but 
such  a  conclusion  can  find  no  support  in  the 
scientific  theorem,  which  is  simply  a  generalized 
description  of  phenomena.  The  general  con- 
siderations upon  which  the  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence and  direct  action  of  Deity  is  otherwise 
founded  are  in  no  wise  disturbed  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  any  such  scientific  theorem.  We 
are  still  perfectly  free  to  maintain  that  it  is  the 
direct  action  of  Deity  which  is  manifested  in 
the  planetary  movements  ;  having  done  nothing 
159 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

more  with  our  Newtonian  hypothesis  than  to 
construct  a  happy  formula  for  expressing  the 
mode  or  order  of  the  manifestation.  We  may 
have  learned  something  new  concerning  the 
manner  of  divine  action  ;  we  certainly  have  not 
"  substituted  "  any  other  kind  of  action  for  it. 
And  what  is  thus  obvious  in  this  simple  astro- 
nomical example  is  equally  true  in  principle  in 
every  case  whatever  in  which  one  set  of  phe- 
nomena is  interpreted  by  reference  to  another 
set.  In  no  case  whatever  can  science  use  the 
words  "  force  "  or  "  cause  "  except  as  meta- 
phorically descriptive  of  some  observed  or  ob- 
servable sequence  of  phenomena.  And  conse- 
quently at  no  imaginable  future  time,  so  long 
as  the  essential  conditions  of  human  thinking 
are  maintained,  can  science  even  attempt  to 
substitute  the  action  of  any  other  power  for  the 
direct  action  of  Deity.  The  theological  objec- 
tion urged  by  Leibnitz  against  Newton  was  re- 
peated word  for  word  by  Agassiz  in  his  com- 
ments upon  Darwin.  He  regarded  it  as  a  fatal 
objection  to  the  Darwinian  theory  that  it  ap- 
peared to  substitute  the  action  of  physical 
forces  for  the  creative  action  of  Deity.  The 
fallacy  here  is  precisely  the  same  as  in  Leib- 
nitz's argument.  Mr.  Darwin  has  convinced 
us  that  the  existence  of  highly  complicated  or- 
ganisms is  the  result  of  an  infinitely  diversified 
aggregate  of  circumstances  so  minute  as  sever- 
i6o 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

ally  to  seem  trivial  or  accidental ;  yet  the  con- 
sistent theist  will  always  occupy  an  impregnable 
position  in  maintaining  that  the  entire  series  in 
each  and  every  one  of  its  incidents  is  an  im- 
mediate manifestation  of  the  creative  action  of 
God. 

In  this  connection  it  is  worth  while  to  state 
explicitly  what  is  the  true  province  of  scientific 
explanation.  Is  it  not  obvious  that  since  a  phi- 
losophical theism  must  regard  divine  power  as 
the  immediate  source  of  all  phenomena  alike, 
therefore  science  cannot  properly  explain  any 
particular  group  of  phenomena  by  a  direct  re- 
ference to  the  action  of  Deity  ?  Such  a  refer- 
ence is  not  an  explanation,  since  it  adds  nothing 
to  our  previous  knowledge  either  of  the  phe- 
nomena or  of  the  manner  of  divine  action.  The 
business  of  science  is  simply  to  ascertain  in  what 
manner  phenomena  coexist  with  each  other  or 
follow  each  other,  and  the  only  kind  of  expla- 
nation with  which  it  can  properly  deal  is  that 
which  refers  one  set  of  phenomena  to  another 
set.  In  pursuing  this,  its  legitimate  business, 
science  does  not  touch  on  the  province  of  the- 
ology in  any  way,  and  there  is  no  conceivable 
occasion  for  any  conflict  between  the  two.  From 
this  and  the  previous  considerations  taken  to- 
gether it  follows  not  only  that  such  explanations 
as  are  contained  in  the  Newtonian  and  Darwin- 
ian theories  are  entirely  consistent  with  theism, 
i6i 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

but  also  that  they  are  the  only  kind  of  explana- 
tions with  which  science  can  properly  concern 
itself  at  all.  To  say  that  complex  organisms  were 
directly  created  by  the  Deity  is  to  make  an  as- 
sertion which,  however  true  in  a  theistic  sense, 
is  utterly  barren.  It  is  of  no  profit  to  theism, 
which  must  be  taken  for  granted  before  the 
assertion  can  be  made  ;  and  it  is  of  no  profit 
to  science,  which  must  still  ask  its  question 
"  How  ?  "  ' 

We  are  now  prepared  to  see  that  the  the- 
ological objection  urged  against  the  Newtonian 
and  Darwinian  theories  has  its  roots  in  that  im- 
perfect kind  of  theism  which  Augustine  did  so 
much  to  fasten  upon  the  western  world.  Obvi- 
ously if  Leibnitz  and  Agassiz  had  been  educated 
in  that  higher  theism  shared  by  Clement  and 
Athanasius  in  ancient  times,  with  Spinoza  and 
Goethe  in  later  days,  —  if  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  conceive  of  God  as  immanent  in  the 
universe  and  eternally  creative,  —  then  the  argu- 
ment which  they  urged  with  so  much  feeling 
would  never  have  occurred  to  them.  By  no 
possibility  could  such  an  argument  have  entered 
their  minds.  To  conceive  of  "physical  forces" 
as  powers  of  which  the  action  could  in  any  wise 
be  "  substituted  "  for  the  action  of  Deity  would 
in  such  case  have  been  absolutely  impossible. 

1  Darwinism,  and  other  Essays,  i. ;  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Phi' 
losophy,  part  ii.  ch.  xx. 

162 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

Such  a  conception  involves  the  idea  of  God  as 
remote  from  the  world  and  acting  upon  it  from 
outside.  The  whole  notion  of  what  theological 
writers  are  fond  of  calling  "  secondary  causes  " 
involves  such  an  idea  of  God.  The  higher  or 
Athanasian  theism  knows  nothing  of  secondary- 
causes  in  a  world  where  every  event  flows  di- 
rectly from  the  eternal  First  Cause.  It  knows 
nothing  of  physical  forces  save  as  immediate 
manifestations  of  the  omnipresent  creative  power 
of  God.  In  the  personification  of  physical  forces, 
and  the  implied  contrast  between  their  action 
and  that  of  Deity,  there  is  something  very  Hke 
a  survival  of  the  habits  of  thought  which  char- 
acterized ancient  polytheism.  What  are  these 
personified  forces  but  little  gods  who  are  sup- 
posed to  be  invading  the  sacred  domain  of  the 
ruler  Zeus?  When  one  speaks  of  substituting 
the  action  of  Gravitation  for  the  direct  action  of 
Deity,  does  there  not  hover  somewhere  in  the 
dim  background  of  the  conception  a  vague 
spectre  of  Gravitation  in  the  guise  of  a  rebel- 
lious Titan  ?  Doubtless  it  would  not  be  easy  to 
bring  any  one  to  acknowledge  such  a  charge, 
but  the  unseen  and  unacknowledged  part  of  a 
fallacy  is  just  that  which  is  most  persistent  and 
mischievous.  It  is  not  so  many  generations, 
after  all,  since  our  ancestors  were  barbarians  and 
polytheists  ;  and  fragments  of  their  barbaric 
thinking  are  continually  intruding  unawares  into 
163 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  midst  of  our  lately  acquired  scientific  cul- 
ture. In  most  philosophical  discussions  a  great 
deal  of  loose  phraseology  is  used,  in  order  to 
find  the  proper  connotations  of  which  we  must 
go  back  to  primitive  and  untutored  ages.  Such 
is  eminently  the  case  with  the  phrases  in  which 
the  forces  of  nature  are  personified  and  described 
as  something  else  than  manifestations  of  omni- 
present Deity. 

This  subject  is  of  such  immense  importance 
that  I  must  illustrate  it  from  yet  another  point 
of  view.  We  must  observe  the  manner  in  which, 
along  with  the  progress  of  scientific  discovery, 
theological  arguments  have  come  to  be  per- 
meated by  the  strange  assumption  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  universe  is  godless.  Here 
again  we  must  go  back  for  a  moment  to  the 
primeval  world  and  observe  how  behind  every 
physical  phenomenon  there  were  supposed  to  be 
quasi-human  passions  and  a  quasi-human  will. 
Now  the  phenomena  which  were  first  arranged 
and  systematized  in  men's  thoughts,  and  thus 
made  the  subject  of  something  like  scientific 
generalization,  were  the  simplest,  the  most  ac- 
cessible, and  the  most  manageable  phenomena; 
and  from  these  the  conception  of  a  quasi-human 
will  soonest  faded  away.  There  are  savages  who 
believe  that  hatchets  and  kettles  have  souls,  but 
men  unquestionably  outgrew  such  a  belief  as  this 
long  before  they  outgrew  the  belief  that  there 
164 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

are  ghost-like  deities  in  the  tempest,  or  in  the 
sun  and  moon.  After  many  ages  of  culture,  men 
ceased  to  regard  the  familiar  and  regularly 
recurring  phenomena  of  nature  as  immediate 
results  of  volition,  and  reserved  this  primeval 
explanation  for  unusual  or  terrible  phenomena, 
such  as  comets  and  eclipses,  or  famines  and 
plagues.  As  the  result  of  these  habits  of  thought, 
in  course  of  time.  Nature  seemed  to  be  divided 
into  two  antithetical  provinces.  On  the  one 
hand,  there  were  the  phenomena  that  occurred 
with  a  simple  regularity  which  seemed  to  ex- 
clude the  idea  of  capricious  volition  ;  and  these 
were  supposed  to  constitute  the  realm  of  natural 
law.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  the  complex 
and  irregular  phenomena  in  which  the  presence 
of  law  could  not  so  easily  be  detected  ;  and  these 
were  supposed  to  constitute  the  realm  of  im- 
mediate divine  action.  This  antithesis  has  for- 
ever haunted  the  minds  of  men  imbued  with  the 
lower  or  Augustinian  theism ;  and  such  have 
made  up  the  larger  part  of  the  Christian  world. 
It  has  tended  to  make  the  theologians  hostile 
to  science  and  the  men  of  science  hostile  to 
theology.  For  as  scientific  generalization  has 
steadily  extended  the  region  of  natural  law,  the 
region  which  theology  has  assigned  to  divine 
action  has  steadily  diminished.  Every  discovery 
in  science  has  stripped  off  territory  from  the 
latter  province  and  added  if  to  the  former. 
165 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Every  such  discovery  has  accordingly  been  pro- 
mulgated and  established  in  the  teeth  of  bitter 
and  violent  opposition  on  the  part  of  theolo- 
gians. A  desperate  fight  it  has  been  for  some 
centuries,  in  which  science  has  won  every  dis- 
puted position,  while  theology,  untaught  by 
perennial  defeat,  still  valiantly  defends  the  little 
corner  that  is  left  it.  Still  as  of  old  the  ordi- 
nary theologian  rests  his  case  upon  the  assump- 
tion of  disorder,  caprice,  and  miraculous  inter- 
ference with  the  course  of  nature.  He  naively 
asks,  "  If  plants  and  animals  have  been  natu- 
rally originated,  if  the  world  as  a  whole  has  been 
evolved  and  not  manufactured,  and  if  human 
actions  conform  to  law,  what  is  there  left  for 
God  to  do  ?  If  not  formally  repudiated,  is  he 
not  thrust  back  into  the  past  eternity,  as  an 
ultimate  source  of  things,  which  is  postulated 
for  form's  sake,  but  might  as  well,  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes,  be  omitted  ?  "  ^ 

The  scientific  inquirer  may  reply  that  the 
difficulty  is  one  which  theology  has  created  for 
itself.  It  is  certainly  not  science  that  has  rele- 
gated the  creative  activity  of  God  to  some  name- 
less moment  in  the  bygone  eternity  and  left  him 
without  occupation  in  the  present  world.  It  is 
not  science  that  is  responsible  for  the  mischiev- 
ous distinction  between  divine  action  and  nat- 
ural law.  That  distinction  is  historically  derived 
*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  Hi. 

1 66 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

from  a  loose  habit  of  philosophizing  character- 
istic of  ignorant  ages,  and  was  bequeathed  to 
modern  times  by  the  theology  of  the  Latin 
church.  Small  blame  to  the  atheist  who,  start- 
ing upon  such  a  basis,  thinks  he  can  interpret 
the  universe  without  the  idea  of  God  !  He  is 
but  doing  as  well  as  he  knows  how,  with  the 
materials  given  him.  One  has  only,  however, 
to  adopt  the  higher  theism  of  Clement  and 
Athanasius,  and  this  alleged  antagonism  be- 
tween science  and  theology,  by  which  so  many 
hearts  have  been  saddened,  so  many  minds 
darkened,  vanishes  at  once  and  forever.  "  Once 
really  adopt  the  conception  of  an  ever  present 
God,  without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground,  and  it  becomes  self-evident  that  the 
law  of  gravitation  is  but  an  expression  of  a 
particular  mode  of  divine  action.  And  what  is 
thus  true  of  one  law  is  true  of  all  laws."  ^  The 
thinker  in  whose  mind  divine  action  is  thus 
identified  with  orderly  action,  and  to  whom  a 
really  irregular  phenomenon  would  seem  like 
a  manifestation  of  sheer  diabolism,  foresees  in 
every  possible  extension  of  knowledge  a  fresh 
confirmation  of  his  faith  in  God.  From  his 
point  of  view  there  can  be  no  antagonism  be- 
tween our  duty  as  inquirers  and  our  duty  as 
worshippers.  To  him  no  part  of  the  universe 
is  godless.  In  the  swaying  to  and  fro  of  mole- 
*  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  iii. 

167 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

cules  and  the  ceaseless  pulsations  of  ether,  in 
the  secular  shiftings  of  planetary  orbits,  in  the 
busy  work  of  frost  and  raindrop,  in  the  mys- 
terious sprouting  of  the  seed,  in  the  everlasting 
tale  of  death  and  life  renewed,  in  the  dawning 
of  the  babe's  intelligence,  in  the  varied  deeds 
of  men  from  age  to  age,  he  finds  that  which 
awakens  the  soul  to  reverential  awe;  and  each 
act  of  scientific  explanation  but  reveals  an  open- 
ing through  which  shines  the  glory  of  the 
Eternal  Majesty. 


1 68 


VIII 

ANTHROPOMORPHIC   CONCEP- 
TIONS OF   GOD 

BETWEEN  the  two  ideas  of  God  which 
we  have  exhibited  in  such  striking  con- 
trast, there  is  nevertheless  one  point  of 
resemblance ;  and  this  point  is  fundamental, 
since  it  is  the  point  in  virtue  of  which  both 
are  entitled  to  be  called  theistic  ideas.  In  both 
there  is  presumed  to  be  a  likeness  of  some  sort 
between  God  and  Man.  In  both  there  is  an 
element  of  anthropomorphism.  Even  upon  this 
their  common  ground,  however,  there  is  a  wide 
difference  between  the  two  conceptions.  In  the 
one  the  anthropomorphic  element  is  gross,  in 
the  other  it  is  refined  and  subtle.  The  differ- 
ence is  so  far-reaching  that  some  years  ago  I 
proposed  to  mark  it  by  contrasting  these  two 
conceptions  of  God  as  Anthropomorphic  The- 
ism and  Cosmic  Theism.  For  the  doctrine 
which  represents  God  as  immanent  in  the  uni- 
verse and  revealing  himself  in  the  orderly  suc- 
cession of  events,  the  name  Cosmic  Theism  is 
eminently  appropriate  :  but  it  is  not  intended 
by  the  antithetic  nomenclature  to  convey  the 
169 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

impression  that  in  cosmic  theism  there  is  no- 
thing anthropomorphic.^  A  theory  which  should 
regard  the  Human  Soul  as  alien  and  isolated 
in  the  universe,  without  any  links  uniting  it 
with  the  eternal  source  of  existence,  would  not 
be  theism  at  all.  It  would  be  Atheism,  which 
on  its  metaphysical  side  is  "  the  denial  of 
anything  psychical  in  the  universe  outside  of 
human  consciousness."  It  is  far  enough  from 
any  such  doctrine  to  the  cosmic  theism  of 
Clement  and  Origen,  of  Spinoza  and  Lessing 
and  Schleiermacher.  The  difference,  however, 
between  this  cosmic  conception  of  God  and  the 
anthropomorphic  conception  held  by  TertuUian 
and  Augustine,  Calvin  and  Voltaire  and  Paley, 
is  sufficiently  great  to  be  described  as  a  con- 
trast. The  explanation  of  the  difference  must 
be  sought  far  back  in  the  historic  genesis  of  the 
two  conceptions.  Cosmic  theism,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  reached  through  nature-worship  with 
its  notion  of  vast  elemental  spirits  indwelling 
in  physical  phenomena.  Anthropomorphic  the- 
ism is  descended  from  the  notion  of  tutelar 
deities  which  was  part  of  the  primitive  ancestor- 
worship.  In  the  process  by  which  men  attained 
to  cosmic  theism,  physical  generalization  was 
the  chief  agency  at  work  ;  but  into  anthropo- 
morphic theism,  as  we  have  seen,  there  entered 

*   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  i.  ch.  vii.  ;  part  iii. 
ch.  iv. 

170 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

conceptions  derived  from  men's  political  think- 
ing. For  such  a  people  as  the  Romans,  who 
could  deify  Imperator  Augustus  in  just  the 
same  way  that  the  Japanese  have  deified  their 
Mikado,  it  was  natural  and  easy  to  conceive  of 
God  as  a  monarch  enthroned  in  the  heavens 
and  surrounded  by  a  court  of  ministering  angels. 
Such  was  the  popular  conception  in  the  early 
ages  of  Christianity,  and  such  it  has  doubtless 
remained  with  the  mass  of  uninstructed  people 
even  to  this  day.  The  very  grotesqueness  of 
the  idea,  as  it  appears  to  the  mind  of  ?,  philoso- 
pher, is  an  index  of  the  ease  with  which  it  sat- 
isfies the  mind  of  an  uneducated  man.  Many 
persons,  no  doubt,  have  entertained  this  idea 
of  God  without  ever  giving  it  very  definite 
shape,  and  many  have  recognized  it  as  in  great 
measure  symbolic  :  yet  nothing  can  be  more 
certain  than  that  untold  thousands  have  con- 
ceived it  in  its  full  intensity  of  anthropomor- 
phism. Alike  in  sermons  and  theological  trea- 
tises, in  stately  poetry  and  in  every-day  talk, 
the  Deity  has  been  depicted  as  pleased  or  angry, 
as  repenting  of  his  own  acts,  as  soothed  by 
adulation  and  quick  to  wreak  vengeance  upon 
silly  people  for  blasphemous  remarks.  In  those 
curious  bills  of  expenses  for  the  medieval  mir- 
acle-plays, along  with  charges  of  twopence  for 
keeping  up  a  "  fyre  at  hell  mouthe,"  we  find 
such  items  as  a  shilHng  for  a  purple  coat  for 
171 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

God.  In  one  of  these  plays  an  angel  who  has 
just  witnessed  the  crucifixion  comes  rushing 
into  Heaven,  crying,  "Wake  up,  almighty 
Father  !  Here  are  those  beggarly  Jews  killing 
your  son,  and  you  asleep  here  like  a  drunkard  !  " 
"  Devil  take  me  if  I  knew  anything  about  it!  " 
is  the  drowsy  reply.  Not  the  slightest  irrever- 
ence was  intended  in  these  miracle-plays,  which 
were  the  only  dramatic  performances  tolerated 
by  the  mediaeval  church,  for  the  sake  of  their 
wholesome  educational  influence  upon  the  com- 
mon people.  In  the  light  of  such  facts,  one  sees 
that  the  representations  of  the  Deity  as  an  old 
man  of  august  presence,  with  flowing  hair  and 
beard,  by  the  early  modern  painters,  must  have 
meant  to  all  save  the  highest  minds  much  more 
than  a  mere  symbol.  Until  one's  thoughts 
have  become  accustomed  to  range  far  and  wide 
over  the  universe  it  is  doubtless  impossible  to 
frame  a  conception  of  Deity  that  is  not  grossly 
anthropomorphic.  I  remember  distinctly  the 
conception  which  I  had  formed  when  five  years 
of  age.  I  imagined  a  narrow  ofiice  just  over  the 
zenith,  with  a  tall  standing-desk  running  length- 
wise, upon  which  lay  several  open  ledgers  bound 
in  coarse  leather.  There  was  no  roof  over  this 
office,  and  the  walls  rose  scarcely  five  feet  from 
the  floor,  so  that  a  person  standing  at  the  desk 
could  look  out  upon  the  whole  world.  There 
were  two  persons  at  the  desk,  and  one  of  them 
172 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

•—a  tall,  slender  man,  of  aquiline  features,  wear- 
ing spectacles,  with  a  pen  in  his  hand  and  another 
behind  his  ear  —  was  God.  The  other,  whose 
appearance  I  do  not  distinctly  recall,  was  an 
attendant  angel.  Both  were  diligently  watching 
the  deeds  of  men  and  recording  them  in  the 
ledgers.  To  my  infant  mind  this  picture  was 
not  grotesque,  but  ineffably  solemn,  and  the 
fact  that  all  my  words  and  acts  were  thus  writ- 
ten down,  to  confront  me  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, seemed  naturally  a  matter  of  grave 
concern. 

If  we  could  cross-question  all  the  men  and 
women  we  know,  and  still  more  all  the  children, 
we  should  probably  find  that,  even  in  this  en- 
lightened age,  the  conceptions  of  Deity  current 
throughout  the  civilized  world  contain  much 
that  is  in  the  crudest  sense  anthropomorphic. 
Such,  at  any  rate,  seems  to  be  the  character  of 
the  conceptions  with  which  we  start  in  life. 
With  those  whose  studies  lead  them  to  ponder 
upon  the  subject  in  the  light  of  enlarged  expe- 
rience, these  conceptions  become  greatly  modi- 
fied. They  lose  their  anthropomorphic  defi- 
niteness,  they  grow  vague  by  reason  of  their 
expansion,  they  become  recognized  as  largely 
symbolic,  but  they  never  quite  lose  all  traces 
of  their  primitive  form.  Indeed,  as  I  said  a 
moment  ago,  they  cannot  do  so.  The  utter  de- 
molition of  anthropomorphism  would  be  the 
173 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

demolition  of  theism.  We  have  now  to  see  what 
traces  of  its  primitive  form  the  idea  of  God  can 
retain,  in  the  light  of  our  modern  knowledge 
of  the  universe. 


174 


IX 

THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    DESIGN 

THE  most  highly  refined  and  scientific 
form  of  anthropomorphic  theism  is  that 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  associate 
with  Paley  and  the  authors  of  the  Bridgewater 
treatises.  It  is  not  peculiar  to  Christianity,  since 
it  has  been  held  by  pagans  and  unbelievers  as 
firmly  as  by  the  devoutest  members  of  the 
church.  The  argument  from  design  is  as  old  as 
Sokrates,  and  was  relied  on  by  Voltaire  and  the 
English  deists  of  the  eighteenth  century  no  less 
than  by  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Sir  Charles  Bell. 
Upon  this  theory  the  universe  is  supposed  to 
have  been  created  by  a  Being  possessed  of  intel- 
ligence and  volition  essentially  similar  to  the 
intelligence  and  volition  of  Man.  This  Being 
is  actuated  by  a  desire  for  the  good  of  his  crea- 
tures, and  in  pursuance  thereof  entertains  pur- 
poses and  adapts  means  to  ends  with  consum- 
mate ingenuity.  The  process  by  which  the  world 
was  created  was  analogous  to  manufacture,  as 
being  the  work  of  an  intelligent  artist  operating 
upon  unintelligent  materials  objectively  existing. 
It  is  in  accordance  with  this  theory  that  books 

175 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

on  natural  theology,  as  well  as  those  text-books 
of  science  which  deem  it  edifying  to  introduce 
theological  reflections  where  they  have  no  proper 
place,  are  fond  of  speaking  of  the  "  Divine 
Architect  "  or  the  "  Great  Designer." 

This  theory,  which  is  still  commonly  held,  was 
in  high  favour  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  pre- 
sent century.  In  view  of  the  great  and  sudden 
advances  which  physical  knowledge  was  making, 
it  seemed  well  worth  while  to  consecrate  science 
to  the  service  of  theology ;  and  at  the  same 
time,  in  emphasizing  the  argument  from  design, 
theology  adopted  the  methods  of  science.  The 
attempt  to  discover  evidences  of  beneficent 
purpose  in  the  structure  of  the  eye  and  ear,  in 
the  distribution  of  plants  and  animals  over  the 
earth's  surface,  in  the  shapes  of  the  planetary 
orbits  and  the  inclinations  of  their  axes,  or  in 
any  other  of  the  innumerable  arrangements  of 
nature,  was  an  attempt  at  true  induction  ;  and 
high  praise  is  due  to  the  able  men  who  have 
devoted  their  energies  to  reinforcing  the  argu- 
ment. By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  evidence 
was  naturally  drawn  from  the  organic  world, 
which  began  to  be  comprehensively  studied  in 
the  mutual  relations  of  all  its  parts  in  the  time 
of  Lamarck  and  Cuvier.  The  organic  world  is 
full  of  unspeakably  beautiful  and  wonderful 
adaptations  between  organisms  and  their  envi- 
ronments, as  well  as  between  the  various  parts 
176 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

of  the  same  organism.  The  unmistakable  end 
of  these  adaptations  is  the  welfare  of  the  animal 
or  plant ;  they  conduce  to  length  and  complete- 
ness of  life,  to  the  permanence  and  prosperity 
of  the  species.  For  some  time,  therefore,  the 
arguments  of  natural  theology  seemed  to  be 
victorious  along  the  whole  line.  The  same  kind 
of  reasoning  was  pushed  farther  and  farther  to 
explain  the  classification  and  morphology  of 
plants  and  animals  ;  until  the  cHmax  was  reached 
in  Agassiz's  remarkable  "  Essay  on  Classifica- 
tion," published  in  1859,  in  which  every  organic 
form  was  not  only  regarded  as  a  concrete  thought 
of  the  Creator  interpretable  by  the  human  mind, 
but  this  kind  of  explanation  was  expressly  urged 
as  a  substitute  for  inquiries  into  the  physical 
causes  whereby  such  forms  might  have  been 
originated. 

In  its  best  days,  however,  there  was  a  serious 
weakness  in  the  argument  from  design,  which 
was  ably  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Mill,  in  an  essay 
wherein  he  accords  much  more  weight  to  the 
general  argument  than  could  now  by  any  pos- 
sibility be  granted  it.  Its  fault  was  the  familiar 
logical  weakness  of  proving  too  much.  The 
very  success  of  the  argument  in  showing  the 
world  to  have  been  the  work  of  an  intelligent 
Designer  made  it  impossible  to  suppose  that 
Creator  to  be  at  once  omnipotent  and  absolutely 
benevolent.  For  nothing  can  be  clearer  than 
177 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

that  Nature  is  full  of  cruelty  and  maladaptation. 
In  every  part  of  the  animal  world  we  find  imple- 
ments of  torture  surpassing  in  devilish  ingenuity 
anything  that  was  ever  seen  in  the  dungeons  of 
the  Inquisition.  We  are  introduced  to  a  scene 
of  incessant  and  universal  strife,  of  which  it  is 
not  apparent  on  the  surface  that  the  outcome  is 
the  good  or  the  happiness  of  anything  that 
is  sentient.  In  pre-Darwinian  times,  before  we 
had  gone  below  the  surface,  no  such  outcome 
was  discernible.  Often,  indeed,  we  find  the 
higher  life  wantonly  sacrificed  to  the  lower,  as 
instanced  by  the  myriads  of  parasites  apparently 
created  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  prey  upon 
creatures  better  than  themselves.  Such  consid- 
erations bring  up,  with  renewed  emphasis,  the 
everlasting  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil.  If  the 
Creator  of  such  a  world  is  omnipotent  he  can- 
not be  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  for  the  wel- 
fare of  his  creatures,  but  must  have  other  ends 
in  view  to  which  this  is  in  some  measure  sub- 
ordinated. Or  if  he  is  absolutely  benevolent, 
then  he  cannot  be  omnipotent,  but  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  nature  of  things  which  sets  limits 
to  his  creative  power.  This  dilemma  is  as  old 
as  human  thinking,  and  it  still  remains  a  stum- 
bling-block in  the  way  of  any  theory  of  the 
universe  that  can  possibly  be  devised.  But  it  is 
an  obstacle  especially  formidable  to  any  kind  of 
anthropomorphic  theism.    For  the  only  avenue 

178 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

of  escape  is  the  assumption  of  an  inscrutable 
mystery  which  would  contain  the  solution  of 
the  problem  if  the  human  intellect  could  only 
penetrate  so  far ;  and  the  more  closely  we  invite 
a  comparison  between  divine  and  human  methods 
of  working,  the  more  do  we  close  up  that  only 
outlet. 

The  practical  solution  oftenest  adopted  has 
been  that  which  sacrifices  the  Creator's  omni- 
potence in  favour  of  his  benevolence.  In  the 
noblest  of  the  purely  Aryan  religions — that  of 
which  the  sacred  literature  is  contained  in  the 
Zendavesta — the  evil  spirit  Ahriman  exists 
independently  of  the  will  of  the  good  Ormuzd, 
and  is  accountable  for  all  the  sin  in  the  world, 
but  in  the  fulness  of  time  he  is  to  be  bound  in 
chains  and  shorn  of  his  power  for  mischief.* 
This  theory  has  passed  into  Christendom  in  the 
form  of  Manichaeism  ;  but  its  essential  features 
have  been  adopted  by  orthodox  Christianity, 
which  at  the  same  time  has  tried  to  grasp  the 
other  horn  of  the  dilemma  and  save  the  omni- 
potence of  the  Deity  by  paying  him  what  Mr. 
Mill  calls  the  doubtful  compliment  of  making 
him  the  creator  of  the  devil.  By  this  device  the 
essential  polytheism  of  the  conception  is  thinly 
veiled.  The  confusion  of  thought  has  been  per- 
sistently blinked  by  the  popular  mind ;  but 
among  the  profoundest  thinkers  of  the  Aryan 

^  Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  iv. 
179 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

race  there  have   been  two  who  have  explicitly 
adopted    the    solution  which  limits   the   Crea- 
tor's power.    One  of  these  was  Plato,  who  held 
that  God's  perfect  goodness  has  been  partially- 
thwarted    by  the  intractableness  of  the  mate- 
rials he  has  had  to  work  with.    This  theory  was 
carried  to  extremes  by  those  Gnostics  who   be- 
lieved that  God's  work  consisted  in  redeeming 
a  world  originally  created  by  the  devil,  and  in 
orthodox  Christianity  it  gave  rise  to  the  Augus- 
tinlan    doctrine    of  total    depravity,    and    the 
"  philosophy  of  the  plan  of  salvation  "  founded 
thereon.     The  other  great  thinker  who  adopted 
a  similar  solution  was   Leibnitz.    In  his  famous 
theory  of  optimism   the  world  is  by  no  means 
represented  as  perfect ;  it  is  only  the  best  of  all 
possible  worlds,  the  best  the  Creator  could  make 
out  of  the  materials  at  hand.     In  recent  times 
Mr.  Mill   shows  a  marked   preference  for  this 
view,  and  one  of  the  foremost  religious  teachers 
now  living,  Dr.  Martineau,   falls  into  a  parallel 
line  of  thinking  in  his  suggestion  that  the  pri- 
mary qualities  of  matter  constitute  a   "  datum 
objective  to  God,"  who,  "  In  shaping  the  orbits 
out  of  immensity,  and  determining  seasons  out 
of  eternity,  could  but  follow  the  laws  of  curva- 
ture, measure,  and  proportion."  ^ 

But  indeed  it  is  not  necessary  to  refer  to  the 
problem  of  evil  in  order  to  show  that  the  argu- 

1  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  ii. 
I  80 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

ment  from  design  cannot  prove  the  existence  of 
an  omnipotent  and  benevolent  Designer.  It  is 
not  omnipotence  that  contrives  and  plans  and 
adapts  means  to  ends.  These  are  the  methods 
of  finite  intelligence  ;  they  imply  the  overcoming 
of  obstacles ;  and  to  ascribe  them  to  omnipotence 
is  to  combine  words  that  severally  possess 
meanings  into  a  phrase  that  has  no  meaning. 
"  God  said.  Let  there  be  light :  and  there  was 
light."  In  this  noble  description  of  creative 
omnipotence  one  would  search  in  vain  for  any 
hint  of  contrivance.  The  most  the  argument 
from  design  could  legitimately  hope  to  accom- 
plish was  to  make  it  seem  probable  that  the 
universe  was  wrought  into  its  present  shape  by 
an  intelligent  and  benevolent  Being  immeasur- 
ably superior  to  Man,  but  far  from  infinite  in 
power  and  resources.  Such  an  argument  hardly 
rises  to  the  level  of  true  theism.^ 

*  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  part  iii.  ch.  ii. 


i8i 


X 


SIMILE  OF  THE  WATCH  REPLACED 
BY  SIMILE  OF  THE  FLOWER 

IT  was  in  its  own  chosen  stronghold  that 
this  once  famous  argument  was  destined 
to  meet  its  doom.  It  was  in  the  adapta- 
tions of  the  organic  world,  in  the  manifold  har- 
monies between  living  creatures  and  surround- 
ing circumstances,  that  it  had  seemed  to  find 
its  chief  support ;  and  now  came  the  Darwin- 
ian theory  of  natural  selection,  and  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye  knocked  all  this  support 
from  under  it.  It  is  not  that  the  organism  and 
its  environment  had  been  adapted  to  each  other 
by  an  exercise  of  creative  intelligence,  but  it  is 
that  the  organism  is  necessarily  fitted  to  the  en- 
vironment because  in  the  perennial  slaughter 
that  has  gone  on  from  the  beginning  only  the 
fittest  have  survived.  Or,  as  it  has  been  other- 
wise expressed,  "  the  earth  is  suited  to  its  in- 
habitants because  it  has  produced  them,  and 
only  such  as  suit  it  live."  In  the  struggle  for 
existence  no  individual  peculiarity,  however 
slight,  that  tends  to  the  preservation  of  life  is 
neglected.  It  is  unerringly  seized  upon  and 
182 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

propagated  by  natural  selection,  and  from  the 
cumulative  action  of  such  slight  causes  have 
come  the  beautiful  adaptations  of  which  the  or- 
ganic world  is  full.  The  demonstration  of  this 
point,  through  the  labours  of  a  whole  genera- 
tion of  naturalists,  has  been  one  of  the  most 
notable  achievements  of  modern  science,  and  to 
the  theistic  arguments  of  Paley  and  the  Bridge- 
water  treatises  it  has  dealt  destruction. 

But  the  Darwinian  theory  of  natural  selection 
does  not  stand  alone.  It  is  part  of  a  greater 
whole.  It  is  the  most  conspicuous  portion  of 
that  doctrine  of  evolution  in  which  all  the  re- 
sults hitherto  attained  by  the  great  modern 
scientific  movement  are  codified,  and  which 
Herbert  Spencer  had  already  begun  to  set  forth 
in  its  main  outlines  before  the  Darwinian  theory 
had  been  made  known  to  the  world.  This  doc- 
trine of  evolution  so  far  extends  the  range  of 
our  vision  through  past  and  future  time  as  en- 
tirely to  alter  our  conception  of  the  universe. 
Our  grandfathers,  in  common  with  all  preced- 
ing generations  of  men,  could  and  did  suppose 
that  at  some  particular  moment  in  the  past 
eternity  the  world  was  created  in  very  much  the 
shape  which  it  has  at  present.  But  our  modern 
knowledge  does  not  allow  us  to  suppose  any- 
thing of  the  sort.  We  can  carry  back  our 
thoughts  through  a  long  succession  of  great 
epochs,  some  of  them  many  millions  of  years 
183 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

in  duration,  in  each  of  which  the  innumerable 
forms  of  life  that  covered  the  earth  were  very 
different  from  what  they  were  in  all  the  others, 
and  in  even  the  nearest  of  which  they  were  not- 
ably different  from  what  they  are  now.  We 
can  go  back  still  farther  to  the  eras  when  the 
earth  was  a  whirling  ball  of  vapour,  or  when  it 
formed  an  equatorial  belt  upon  a  sun  two  hun- 
dred million  miles  in  diameter,  or  when  the  sun 
itself  was  but  a  giant  nebula  from  which  as  yet 
no  planet  had  been  born.  And  through  all  the 
vast  sweep  of  time,  from  the  simple  primeval 
vapour  down  to  the  multifarious  world  we  know 
to-day,  we  see  the  various  forms  of  Nature  com- 
ing into  existence  one  after  the  other  in  accord- 
ance with  laws  of  which  we  are  already  begin- 
ning to  trace  the  character  and  scope.  Paley's 
simile  of  the  watch  is  no  longer  applicable  to 
such  a  world  as  this.  It  must  be  replaced  by 
the  simile  of  the  flower.  The  universe  is  not  a 
machine,  but  an  organism,  with  an  indwelling 
principle  of  life.  It  was  not  made,  but  it  has 
grown. 

That  such  a  change  in  our  conception  of 
the  universe  marks  the  greatest  revolution  that 
has  ever  taken  place  in  human  thinking  need 
scarcely  be  said.  But  even  in  this  statement  we 
have  not  quite  revealed  the  depth  of  the  change. 
Not  only  has  modern  science  made  it  clear  that 
the  varied  forms  of  Nature  which  make  up  the 
184 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

universe  have  arisen  through  a  process  of  evo- 
lution, but  it  has  also  made  it  clear  that  what 
we  call  the  laws  of  Nature  have  been  evolved 
through  the  self-same  process.  The  axiom  of 
the  persistence  of  force,  upon  which  all  modern 
science  has  come  to  rest,  involves  as  a  necessary 
corollary  the  persistence  of  the  relations  between 
forces  ;  so  that,  starting  with  the  persistence  of 
force  and  the  primary  qualities  of  matter,  it  can 
be  shown  that  all  those  uniformities  of  coexist- 
ence and  succession  which  we  call  natural  laws 
have  arisen  one  after  the  other  in  connection  with 
the  forms  which  have  afforded  the  occasions  for 
their  manifestation.  The  all-pervading  har- 
mony of  Nature  is  thus  itself  a  natural  product, 
and  the  last  inch  of  ground  is  cut  away  from 
under  the  theologians  who  suppose  the  universe 
to  have  come  into  existence  through  a  supernat- 
ural process  of  manufacture  at  the  hands  of  a 
Creator  outside  of  itself. 


185 


XI 

THE  CRAVING  FOR  A  FINAL  CAUSE 

IT  appears,  then,  that  the  idea  of  God  as 
remote  from  the  world  is  not  likely  to  sur- 
vive the  revolution  in  thought  which  the 
rapid  increase  of  modern  knowledge  has  inau- 
gurated. The  knell  of  anthropomorphic  or  Au- 
gustinian  theism  has  already  sounded.  This 
conclusion  need  not,  however,  disturb  us  when 
we  consider  how  imperfect  a  form  of  theism  this 
is  which  mankind  is  now  outgrowing.  To  get 
rid  of  the  appearance  of  antagonism  between 
science  and  religion  will  of  itself  be  one  of  the 
greatest  benefits  ever  conferred  upon  the  human 
race.  It  will  forward  science  and  purify  religion, 
and  it  will  go  far  toward  increasing  kindness 
and  mutual  helpfulness  among  men.  Since  such 
happy  results  are  likely  to  follow  the  general 
adoption  of  the  cosmic  or  Athanasian  form  of 
theism,  in  place  of  the  other  form,  it  becomes 
us  to  observe  more  specifically  the  manner  in 
which  this  higher  theism  stands  related  to  our 
modern  knowledge. 

To  every  form  of  theism,  as  I  have  already 
urged,  an  anthropomorphic  element  is  indispen- 
i86 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

sable.  It  is  quite  true,  on  the  one  hand,  that  to 
ascribe  what  we  know  as  human  personality  to 
the  infinite  Deity  straightway  lands  us  in  a  con- 
tradiction, since  personality  without  limits  is  in- 
conceivable. But  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  no 
less  true  that  the  total  elimination  of  anthropo- 
morphism from  the  idea  of  God  abolishes  the 
idea  itself.  This  difficulty  need  not  dishearten 
us,  for  it  is  no  more  than  we  must  expect  to 
encounter  on  the  threshold  of  such  a  problem 
as  the  one  before  us.  We  do  not  approach  the 
question  in  the  spirit  of  those  natural  theolo- 
gians who  were  so  ready  with  their  explanations 
of  the  divine  purposes.  We  are  aware  that  "  we 
see  as  through  a  glass  darkly,"  and  we  do  not 
expect  to  "  think  God's  thoughts  after  him  " 
save  in  the  crudest  symbolic  fashion.  In  deal- 
ing with  the  Infinite  we  are  confessedly  treating 
of  that  which  transcends  our  powers  of  con- 
ception. Our  ability  to  frame  ideas  is  strictly 
limited  by  experience,  and  our  experience  does 
not  furnish  the  materials  for  the  idea  of  a  per- 
sonality which  is  not  narrowly  hemmed  in  by 
the  inexorable  barriers  of  circumstance.  We 
therefore  cannot  conceive  such  an  idea.  But  it 
does  not  follow  that  there  is  no  reality  answer- 
ing to  what  such  an  idea  would  be  if  it  could 
be  conceived.  The  test  of  inconceivability  is 
only  applicable  to  the  world  of  phenomena  from 
which  our  experience  is  gathered.  It  fails  when 
187 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

applied  to  that  which  lies  behind  phenomena. 
I  do  not  hold  for  this  reason  that  we  are  justi- 
fied in  using  such  an  expression  as  "  infinite 
personality  "  in  a  philosophical  inquiry  where 
clearness  of  thought  and  speech  is  above  all 
things  desirable.  But  I  do  hold,  most  emphati- 
cally, that  we  are  not  debarred  from  ascribing 
a  quasi-psychical  nature  to  the  Deity  simply 
because  we  can  frame  no  proper  conception  of 
such  a  nature  as  absolute  and  infinite. 

The  point  is  of  vital  importance  to  theism. 
As  Kant  has  well  said,  "  the  conception  of  God 
involves  not  merely  a  blindly  operating  Nature 
as  the  eternal  root  of  things,  but  a  Supreme 
Being  that  shall  be  the  author  of  all  things  by 
free  and  understanding  action ;  and  it  is  this 
conception  which  alone  has  any  interest  for  us." 
It  will  be  observed  that  Kant  says  nothing  here 
about  "  contrivance."  By  the  phrase  "  free  and 
understanding  action"  he  doubtless  means  much 
the  same  that  is  here  meant  by  ascribing  to  God 
a  quasi-psychical  nature.  And  thus  alone,  he 
says,  can  we  feel  any  interest  in  theism.  The 
thought  goes  deep,  yet  is  plain  enough  to  every 
one.  The  teleological  instinct  in  Man  cannot  be 
suppressed  or  ignored.  The  human  soul  shrinks 
from  the  thought  that  it  is  without  kith  or  kin  in 
all  this  wide  universe.  Our  reason  demands  that 
there  shall  be  a  reasonableness  in  the  constitution 
of  things.  This  demand  is  a  fact  in  our  psychical 
i88 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

nature  as  positive  and  irrepressible  as  our  accept- 
ance of  geometrical  axioms  and  our  rejection  of 
whatever  controverts  such  axioms.  No  ingenu- 
ity of  argument  can  bring  us  to  believe  that  the 
infinite  Sustainer  of  the  universe  will  "  put  us 
to  permanent  intellectual  confusion."  There  is 
in  every  earnest  thinker  a  craving  after  a  final 
cause ;  and  this  craving  can  no  more  be  ex- 
tinguished than  our  belief  in  objective  reality. 
Nothing  can  persuade  us  that  the  universe  is  a 
farrago  of  nonsense.  Our  belief  in  what  we  call 
the  evidence  of  our  senses  is  less  strong  than 
our  faith  that  in  the  orderly  sequence  of  events 
there  is  a  meaning  which  our  minds  could  fathom 
were  they  only  vast  enough.  Doubtless  in  our 
own  age,  of  which  it  is  a  most  healthful  symp- 
tom that  it  questions  everything,  there  are  many 
who,  through  inability  to  assign  the  grounds 
for  such  a  faith,  have  persuaded  themselves 
that  it  must  be  a  mere  superstition  which  ought 
not  to  be  cherished  ;  but  it  is  not  likely  that 
any  one  of  these  has  ever  really  succeeded  in 
ridding  himself  of  it. 

According  to  Mr.  Spencer,  the  only  ultimate 
test  of  reality  is  persistence,  and  the  only  mea- 
sure of  validity  among  our  primary  beliefs  is 
the  success  with  which  they  resist  all  efforts  to 
change  them.  Let  us  see,  then,  how  it  is  with 
the  belief  in  the  essential  reasonableness  of  the 
universe.  Does  this  belief  answer  to  any  out- 
189 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

ward  reality  ?  Is  there,  in  the  scheme  of  things, 
aught  that  justifies  Man  in  claiming  kinship 
of  any  sort  with  the  God  that  is  immanent  in 
the  world  ? 

The  difficulty  in  answering  such  questions 
has  its  root  in  the  impossibility  of  framing  a 
representative  conception  of  Deity ;  but  it  is  a 
difficulty  which  may,  for  all  practical  purposes, 
be  surmounted  by  the  aid  of  a  symbolic  con- 
ception. 


190 


XII 

SYMBOLIC  CONCEPTIONS 

OBSERVE  the  meaning  of  this  distinc- 
tion. Of  any  simple  object  which  can 
be  grasped  in  a  single  act  of  perception, 
such  as  a  knife  or  a  book,  an  egg  or  an  orange, 
a  circle  or  a  triangle,  you  can  frame  a  concep- 
tion which  almost  or  quite  exactly  represents  the 
object.  The  picture  or  visual  image  in  your 
mind  when  the  orange  is  present  to  the  senses 
is  almost  exactly  reproduced  when  it  is  absent. 
The  distinction  between  the  two  lies  chiefly  in 
the  relative  vividness  of  the  former  as  contrasted 
with  the  relative  faintness  of  the  latter.  But  as 
the  objects  of  thought  increase  in  size  and  in 
complexity  of  detail,  the  case  soon  comes  to  be 
very  different.  You  cannot  frame  a  truly  re- 
presentative conception  of  the  town  in  which 
you  live,  however  familiar  you  may  be  with  its 
streets  and  houses,  its  parks  and  trees,  and  the 
looks  and  demeanour  of  the  townsmen  ;  it  is 
impossible  to  embrace  so  many  details  in  a 
single  mental  picture.  The  mind  must  range 
to  and  fro  among  the  phenomena  in  order  to 
represent  the  town  in  a  series  of  conceptions. 
191 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

But  practically  what  you  have  in  mind  when 
you  speak  of  the  town  is  a  fragmentary  con- 
ception in  which  some  portion  of  the  object 
is  represented,  while  you  are  well  aware  that 
with  sufficient  pains  a  series  of  mental  pictures 
could  be  formed  which  would  approximately 
correspond  to  the  object.  That  is  to  say,  this 
fragmentary  conception  stands  in  your  mind  as 
a  symbol  of  the  town.  To  some  extent  the  con- 
ception is  representative,  but  to  a  great  degree 
it  is  symbolic.  With  a  further  increase  in  the 
size  and  complexity  of  the  objects  of  thought, 
our  conceptions  gradually  lose  their  representa- 
tive character,  and  at  length  become  purely  sym- 
bolic. No  one  can  form  a  mental  picture  that 
answers  even  approximately  to  the  earth.  Even 
a  homogeneous  ball  eight  thousand  miles  in  di- 
ameter is  too  vast  an  object  to  be  conceived 
otherwise  than  symbolically,  and  much  more  is 
this  true  of  the  ball  upon  which  we  live,  with 
all  its  endless  multiformity  of  detail.  We  imag- 
ine a  globe  and  clothe  it  with  a  few  terrestrial 
attributes,  and  in  our  minds  this  fragmentary 
notion  does  duty  as  a  symbol  of  the  earth. 

The  case  becomes  still  more  striking  when 
we  have  to  deal  with  conceptions  of  the  uni- 
verse, of  cosmic  forces  such  as  light  and  heat, 
or  of  the  stupendous  secular  changes  which 
modern  science  calls  us  to  contemplate.  Here 
our  conceptions  cannot  even  pretend  to  repre- 
192 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

sent  the  objects  ;  they  are  as  purely  symbolic 
as  the  algebraic  equations  whereby  the  geome- 
ter expresses  the  shapes  of  curves.  Yet  so  long 
as  there  are  means  of  verification  at  our  com- 
mand, we  can  reason  as  safely  with  these  sym- 
bolic conceptions  as  if  they  were  truly  repre- 
sentative. The  geometer  can  at  any  moment 
translate  his  equation  into  an  actual  curve,  and 
thereby  test  the  results  of  his  reasoning;  and 
the  case  is  similar  with  the  undulatory  theory 
of  light,  the  chemist's  conception  of  atomicity, 
and  other  vast  stretches  of  thought  which  in 
recent  times  have  revolutionized  our  knowledge 
of  Nature.  The  danger  in  the  use  of  symbohc 
conceptions  is  the  danger  of  framing  illegitimate 
symbols  that  answer  to  nothing  in  heaven  or 
earth,  as  has  happened  first  and  last  with  so 
many  short-lived  theories  in  science  and  in 
metaphysics.  Forewarned  of  this  danger,  and 
therefore — I  hope  —  forearmed  against  it,  let 
us  see  what  a  scientific  philosophy  has  to  say 
about  the  Power  that  is  manifested  in  and 
through  the  universe. 


193 


XIII 

THE   ETERNAL   SOURCE  OF  PHE- 
NOMENA 

WE  have  seen  that  before  men  could 
arrive  at  the  idea  of  God,  before  out 
of  the  old  crude  and  fragmentary 
polytheisms  there  could  be  developed  a  pure 
and  coherent  theism,  it  was  necessary  that  phy- 
sical generalization  should  have  advanced  far 
enough  to  enable  them,  however  imperfectly, 
to  reason  about  the  universe  as  a  whole.  It  was 
a  faint  glimpse  of  the  unity  of  Nature  that  first 
led  men  to  the  conception  of  the  unity  of  God, 
and  as  their  knowledge  of  the  phenomenal  fact 
becomes  clearer,  so  must  their  grasp  upon  the 
noumenal  truth  behind  it  become  firmer.  Now 
the  whole  tendency  of  modern  science  is  to  im- 
press upon  us  ever  more  forcibly  the  truth  that 
the  entire  knowable  universe  is  an  immense 
unit,  animated  throughout  all  its  parts  by  a 
single  principle  of  life.  This  conclusion,  which 
was  long  ago  borne  in  upon  the  minds  of 
prophetic  thinkers,  like  Spinoza  and  Goethe, 
through  their  keen  appreciation  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  physical  harmonies  known  to  them, 
194 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

has  during  the  last  fifty  years  recerved  some- 
thing like  a  demonstration  in  detail.  It  is  since 
Goethe's  death,  for  example,  that  it  has  been 
proved  that  the  Newtonian  law  of  gravitation 
extends  to  the  bodies  which  used  to  be  called 
fixed  stars.  That  such  was  the  case  was  already 
much  more  than  probable,  but  so  lately  as  1835 
there  were  to  be  found  writers  on  science,  such 
as  Comte,  who  denied  that  it  could  ever  be 
proved.  But  a  still  more  impressive  illustration 
of  the  unity  of  Nature  is  furnished  by  the  lu- 
miniferous  ether,  when  considered  in  connection 
with  the  discovery  of  the  correlation  of  forces. 
The  fathomless  abysses  of  space  can  no  longer 
be  talked  of  as  empty ;  they  are  filled  with  a 
wonderful  substance,  unlike  any  of  the  forms 
of  matter  which  we  can  weigh  and  measure.  A 
cosmic  jelly  almost  infinitely  hard  and  elastic,  it 
offers  at  the  same  time  no  appreciable  resistance 
to  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  It 
is  so  sensitive  that  a  shock  in  any  part  of  it 
causes  a  "  tremor  which  is  felt  on  the  surface 
of  countless  worlds."  Radiating  in  every  direc- 
tion, from  millions  of  centric  points,  run  shivers 
of  undulation  manifested  in  endless  metamor- 
phosis as  heat,  or  light,  or  actinism,  as  mag- 
netism or  electricity.  Crossing  one  another  in 
every  imaginable  way,  as  if  all  space  were  crowded 
with  a  mesh-work  of  nerve-threads,  these  mo- 
tions go  on  forever  in  a  harmony  that  nothing 

195 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

disturbs.  Thus  every  part  of  the  universe  shares 
in  the  Hfe  of  all  the  other  parts,  as  when  in  the 
solar  atmosphere,  pulsating  at  its  temperature 
of  a  million  degrees  Fahrenheit,  a  slight  breeze 
instantly  sways  the  needles  in  every  compass- 
box  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Still  further  striking  confirmation  is  found  in 
the  marvellous  disclosures  of  spectrum  analysis. 
To  whatever  part  of  the  heavens  we  turn  the 
telescope,  armed  with  this  new  addition  to  our 
senses,  we  find  the  same  chemical  elements  with 
which  the  present  century  has  made  us  familiar 
upon  the  surface  of  the  earth.  From  the  dis- 
tant worlds  of  Arcturus  and  the  Pleiades,  whence 
the  swift  ray  of  light  takes  many  years  to  reach 
us,  it  brings  the  story  of  the  hydrogen  and 
oxygen,  the  vapour  of  iron  or  sodium,  which  set 
it  in  motion.  Thus  in  all  parts  of  the  universe 
that  have  fallen  within  our  ken  we  find  a  unity 
of  chemical  composition.  Nebulas,  stars,  and 
planets  are  all  made  of  the  same  materials,  and 
on  every  side  we  behold  them  in  different  stages 
of  development,  worlds  in  the  making  :  here  an 
irregular  nebula  such  as  our  solar  system  once 
was,  there  a  nebula  whose  rotation  has  at  length 
wrought  it  into  spheroidal  form  ;  here  and  there 
stars  of  varied  colours  marking  different  eras  in 
chemical  evolution  ;  new  planets  still  partly  in- 
candescent like  Saturn  and  Jupiter,  then  planets 
like  Mars  and  the  earth,  with  cool  atmospheres 
196 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

and  solid  continents  and  vast  oceans  of  water; 
and  lastly  such  bodies  as  the  moon,  vapourless, 
rigid,  and  cold  in  death. 

Still  nearer  do  we  come  toward  realizing  the 
unity  of  Nature  when  we  recollect  that  the  law 
of  evolution  is  not  only  the  same  for  all  these 
various  worlds,  but  is  also  the  same  throughout 
all  other  orders  of  phenomena.  Not  only  in  the 
development  of  cosmical  bodies,  including  the 
earth,  but  also  in  the  development  of  life  upon 
the  earth's  surface  and  in  the  special  develop- 
ment of  those  complex  manifestations  of  life 
known  as  human  societies,  the  most  general 
and  fundamental  features  of  the  process  are  the 
same,  so  that  it  has  been  found  possible  to 
express  them  in  a  single  universal  formula. 
And  what  is  most  striking  of  all,  this  notable 
formula,  under  which  Herbert  Spencer  has  suc- 
ceeded in  generalizing  the  phenomena  of  uni- 
versal evolution,  was  derived  from  the  formula 
under  which  Von  Baer  in  1829  first  generalized 
the  mode  of  development  of  organisms  from 
their  embryos.  That  a  law  of  evolution  first 
partially  detected  among  the  phenomena  of  the 
organic  world  should  thereafter  not  only  be  found 
applicable  to  all  other  orders  of  phenomena, 
but  should  find  in  this  application  its  first  com- 
plete and  coherent  statement,  is  a  fact  of  won- 
drous and  startling  significance.  It  means  that 
the  universe  as  a  whole  is  thrilling  in  every  fibre 
197 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

with  Life,  —  not,  indeed,  life  in  the  usual  re- 
stricted sense,  but  life  in  a  general  sense.  The 
distinction,  once  deemed  absolute,  between  the 
living  and  the  not-living  is  converted  into  a  re- 
lative distinction  ;  and  Life  as  manifested  in  the 
organism  is  seen  to  be  only  a  specialized  form 
of  the  Universal  Life. 

The  conception  of  matter  as  dead  or  inert 
belongs,  indeed,  to  an  order  of  thought  that 
modern  knowledge  has  entirely  outgrown.  If 
the  study  of  physics  has  taught  us  anything,  it 
is  that  nowhere  in  Nature  is  inertness  or  quies- 
cence to  be  found.  All  is  quivering  with  en- 
ergy. From  particle  to  particle  without  cessa- 
tion the  movement  passes  on,  reappearing  from 
moment  to  moment  under  myriad  Protean 
forms,  while  the  rearrangements  of  particles  in- 
cidental to  the  movement  constitute  the  quali- 
tative differences  among  things.  Now  in  the 
language  of  physics  all  motions  of  matter  are 
manifestations  of  force,  to  which  we  can  assign 
neither  beginning  nor  end.  Matter  is  indestruc- 
tible, motion  is  continuous,  and  beneath  both 
these  universal  truths  lies  the  fundamental  truth 
that  force  is  persistent.  The  farthest  reach  in 
science  that  has  ever  been  made  was  made  when 
it  was  proved  by  Herbert  Spencer  that  the  law 
of  universal  evolution  is  a  necessary  consequence 
of  the  persistence  of  force.  It  has  shown  us 
that  all  the  myriad  phenomena  of  the  universe, 
198 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

all  its  weird  and  subtle  changes,  in  all  their  mi- 
nuteness from  moment  to  moment,  in  all  their 
vastness  from  age  to  age,  are  the  manifestations 
of  a  single  animating  principle  that  is  both  infi- 
nite and  eternal. 

By  what  name,  then,  shall  we  call  this  animat- 
ing principle  of  the  universe,  this  eternal  source 
of  phenomena?  Using  the  ordinary  language 
of  physics,  we  have  just  been  calling  it  Force, 
but  such  a  term  in  no  wise  enlightens  us. 
Taken  by  itself  it  is  meaningless  ;  it  acquires  its 
meaning  only  from  the  relations  in  which  it  is 
used.  It  is  a  mere  symbol,  like  the  algebraic 
expression  which  stands  for  a  curve.  Of  what, 
then,  is  it  the  symbol  ? 

The  words  which  we  use  are  so  enwrapped 
in  atmospheres  of  subtle  associations  that  they 
are  liable  to  sway  the  direction  of  our  thoughts 
in  ways  of  which  we  are  often  unconscious.  It 
is  highly  desirable  that  physics  should  have  a 
word  as  thoroughly  abstract,  as  utterly  emptied 
of  all  connotations  of  personality,  as  possible, 
so  that  it  may  be  used  like  a  mathematical  sym- 
bol. Such  a  word  is  Force.  But  what  we  are 
now  dealing  with  is  by  no  means  a  scientific  ab- 
straction. It  is  the  most  concrete  and  solid  of 
realities,  the  one  Reality  which  underlies  all  ap- 
pearances, and  from  the  presence  of  which  we 
can  never  escape.  Suppose,  then,  that  we  trans- 
late our  abstract  terminology  into  something 
199 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

that  is  more  concrete.  Instead  of  the  force 
which  persists,  let  us  speak  of  the  Power  which 
is  always  and  everywhere  manifested  in  phe- 
nomena. Our  question,  then,  becomes.  What 
is  this  infinite  and  eternal  Power  like  ?  What 
kind  of  language  shall  we  use  in  describing  it  ? 
Can  we  regard  it  as  in  any  wise  "  material,"  or 
can  we  speak  of  its  universal  and  ceaseless  ac- 
tivity as  in  any  wise  the  working  of  a  "  blind 
necessity  "  ?  For  here,  at  length,  we  have  pene- 
trated to  the  innermost  kernel  of  the  problem  ; 
and  upon  the  answer  must  depend  our  mental 
attitude  toward  the  mystery  of  existence. 

The  answer  is  that  we  cannot  regard  the  in- 
finite and  eternal  Power  as  in  any  wise  "  mate- 
rial," nor  can  we  attribute  its  workings  to 
"  blind  necessity."  The  eternal  source  of  phe- 
nomena is  the  source  of  what  we  see  and  hear 
and  touch  ;  it  is  the  source  of  what  we  call  mat- 
ter, but  it  cannot  itself  be  material.  Matter  is 
but  the  generalized  name  we  give  to  those  modi- 
fications which  we  refer  immediately  to  an  un- 
known something  outside  of  ourselves.  It  was 
long  ago  shown  that  all  the  qualities  of  matter 
are  what  the  mind  makes  them,  and  have  no 
existence  as  such  apart  from  the  mind.  In  the 
deepest  sense  all  that  we  really  know  is  mind, 
and  as  Clifford  would  say,  what  we  call  the 
material  universe  is  simply  an  imperfect  picture 


200 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

in  our  minds  of  a  real  universe  of  mind-stuff.* 
Our  own  mind  we  know  directly  ;  our  neigh- 
bour's mind  we  know  by  inference  ;  that  which 
is  external  to  both  is  a  Power  hidden  from 
sense,  which  causes  states  of  consciousness  that 
are  similar  in  both.  Such  states  of  conscious- 
ness we  call  material  qualities,  and  matter  is 
nothing  but  the  sum  of  such  qualities.  To 
speak  of  the  hidden  Power  itself  as  "  material " 
is  therefore  not  merely  to  state  what  is  untrue, 
—  it  is  to  talk  nonsense.  We  are  bound  to  con- 
ceive of  the  Eternal  Reality  in  terms  of  the  only 
reality  that  we  know,  or  else  refrain  from  con- 
ceiving it  under  any  form  whatever.  But  the 
latter  alternative  is  clearly  impossible.^  We 
might  as  well  try  to  escape  from  the  air  in  which 
we  breathe  as  to  expel  from  consciousness  the 
Power  which  is  manifested  throughout  what  we 
call  the  material  universe.  But  the  only  conclu- 
sion we  can  consistently  hold  is  that  this  is  the 
very  same  power  "  which  in  ourselves  wells  up 
under  the  form  of  consciousness." 

In  the  nature-worship  of  primitive  men,  be- 
neath all  the  crudities  of  thought  by  which  it 
was  overlaid  and  obscured,  there  was  thus  after 
all  an  essential  germ  of  truth  which  modern 
philosophy  is  constrained  to  recognize  and  re- 

*  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist y  xiii. 

^   Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy ,  part  iii.  ch.  iv. 


20I 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

iterate.  As  the  unity  of  Nature  has  come  to  be 
demonstrated,  innumerable  finite  powers,  once 
conceived  as  psychical  and  deified,  have  been 
generalized  into  a  single  infinite  Power  that  is 
still  thought  of  as  psychical.  From  the  crudest 
polytheism  we  have  thus,  by  a  slow  evolution, 
arrived  at  pure  monotheism,  —  the  recognition 
of  the  eternal  God  indwelling  in  the  universe, 
in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 
But  in  thus  conceiving  of  God  as  psychical, 
as  a  Being  with  whom  the  human  soul  in  the 
deepest  sense  owns  kinship,  we  must  beware  of 
too  carelessly  ascribing  to  Him  those  special- 
ized psychical  attributes  characteristic  of  hu- 
manity, which  one  and  all  imply  limitation  and 
weakness.  We  must  not  forget  the  warning 
of  the  prophet  Isaiah  :  "  My  thoughts  are 
not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  my 
ways,  saith  the  Lord.  For  as  the  heavens  are 
higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  my  ways  higher 
than  your  ways,  and  my  thoughts  than  your 
thoughts."  Omniscience,  for  example,  has  been 
ascribed  to  God  in  every  system  of  theism  ; 
yet  the  psychical  nature  to  which  all  events, 
past,  present,  and  future,  can  be  always  simul- 
taneously present  is  clearly  as  far  removed  from 
the  limited  and  serial  psychical  nature  of  Man 
as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth.  We 
are  not  so  presumptuous,  therefore,  as  to  at- 
tempt, with  some  theologians  of  the  anthropo- 
202 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

morphic  school,  to  inquire  minutely  into  the 
character  of  the  divine  decrees  and  purposes. 
But  our  task  would  be  ill  performed  were  no- 
thing more  to  be  said  about  that  craving  after  a 
final  cause  which  we  have  seen  to  be  an  essen- 
tial element  in  Man's  religious  nature.  It  re- 
mains to  be  shown  that  there  is  a  reasonableness 
in  the  universe,  that  in  the  orderly  sequence  of 
events  there  is  a  meaning  which  appeals  to  our 
human  intelligence.  Without  adopting  Paley's 
method,  which  has  been  proved  inadequate,  we 
may  nevertheless  boldly  aim  at  an  object  like 
that  at  which  Paley  aimed.  Caution  is  needed, 
since  we  are  dealing  with  a  symbolic  concep- 
tion as  to  which  the  very  point  in  question  is 
whether  there  is  any  reality  that  answers  to  it. 
The  problem  is  a  hard  one,  but  here  we  sud- 
denly get  powerful  help  from  the  doctrine  of 
evolution,  and  especially  from  that  part  of  it 
known  as  the  Darwinian  theory. 


203 


XIV 

THE    POWER   THAT    MAKES    FOR 
RIGHTEOUSNESS 

A  LTHOUGH  it  was  the  Darwinian  theory 
A-\  of  natural  selection  which  overthrew 
'*-  -*"  the  argument  from  design,  yet  —  as  I 
have  argued  in  another  place  —  when  thor- 
oughly understood  it  will  be  found  to  replace  as 
much  teleology  as  it  destroys.*  Indeed,  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  in  all  its  chapters,  has  a 
certain  teleological  aspect,  although  it  does  not 
employ  those  methods  which  in  the  hands  of 
the  champions  of  final  causes  have  been  found 
so  misleading.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  does 
not  regard  any  given  arrangement  of  things  as 
scientifically  explained  when  it  is  shown  to  sub- 
serve some  good  purpose,  but  it  seeks  its  ex- 
planation in  such  antecedent  conditions  as  may 
have  been  competent  to  bring  about  the  ar- 
rangement in  question.  Nevertheless,  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution  is  not  only  perpetually  show- 
ing us  the  purposes  which  the  arrangements  of 
Nature    subserve,    but    throughout    one    large 

^  See  above,  p.  80,  and  compare  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Phi- 
losophy^  part  iii.  ch.  ii. 

204 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

section  of  the  ground  which  it  covers  it  points 
to  a  discernible  dramatic  tendency,  a  clearly 
marked  progress  of  events  toward  a  mighty  goal. 
Now  it  especially  concerns  us  to  note  that  this 
large  section  is  just  the  one,  and  the  only  one, 
which  our  powers  of  imagination  are  able  to 
compass.  The  astronomic  story  of  the  universe 
is  altogether  too  vast  for  us  to  comprehend  in 
such  wise  as  to  tell  whether  it  shows  any  dra- 
matic tendency  or  not.*  But  in  the  story  of  the 
evolution  of  life  upon  the  surface  of  our  earth, 
where  alone  we  are  able  to  compass  the  phe- 
nomena, we  see  all  things  working  together, 
through  countless  ages  of  toil  and  trouble,  to- 
ward one  glorious  consummation.  It  is  therefore 
a  fair  inference,  though  a  bold  one,  that  if  our 
means  of  exploration  were  such  that  we  could 
compass  the  story  of  all  the  systems  of  worlds 
that  shine  in  the  spacious  firmament,  we  should 
be  able  to  detect  a  similar  meaning.  At  all 
events,  the  story  which  we  can  decipher  is  suf- 
ficiently impressive  and  consoling.  It  clothes 
our  theistic  belief  with  moral  significance,  reveals 
the  intense  and  solemn  reality  of  religion,  and 
fills  the  heart  with  tidings  of  great  joy. 

The  glorious  consummation  toward  which 
organic  evolution  is  tending  is  the  production 
of  the  highest  and  most  perfect  psychical  life. 
Already  the  germs  of  this  conclusion  existed  in 

*  Darvjinismy  and  other  Essays,  vi. 
205 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  Darwinian  theory  as  originally  stated,  though 
men  were  for  a  time  too  busy  with  other  aspects 
of  the  theory  to  pay  due  attention  to  them.  In 
the  natural  selection  of  such  individual  pecul- 
iarities as  conduce  to  the  survival  of  the  species, 
and  in  the  evolution  by  this  process  of  higher 
and  higher  creatures  endowed  with  capacities  for 
a  richer  and  more  varied  life,  there  might  have 
been  seen  a  well-marked  dramatic  tendency,  to- 
ward the  denouement  of  which  every  one  of  the 
myriad  little  acts  of  life  and  death  during  the 
entire  series  of  geologic  aeons  was  assisting.  The 
whole  scheme  was  teleological,  and  each  single 
act  of  natural  selection  had  a  teleological  mean- 
ing. Herein  lies  the  reason  why  the  theory  so 
quickly  destroyed  that  of  Paley.  It  did  not 
merely  refute  it,  but  supplanted  it  with  explana- 
tions which  had  the  merit  of  being  truly  scien- 
tific, while  at  the  same  time  they  hit  the  mark 
at  which  natural  theology  had  unsuccessfully 
aimed. 

Such  was  the  case  with  the  Darwinian  theory 
as  first  announced.  But  since  it  has  been  more 
fully  studied  in  its  application  to  the  genesis  of 
Man,  a  wonderful  flood  of  light  has  been  thrown 
upon  the  meaning  of  evolution,  and  there  ap- 
pears a  reasonableness  in  the  universe  such  as 
had  not  appeared  before.  It  has  been  shown 
that  the  genesis  of  Man  was  due  to  a  change  in 
the  direction  of  the  working  of  natural  selection, 
206 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

whereby  psychical  variations  were  selected  to 
the  neglect  of  physical  variations.  It  has  been 
shown  that  one  chief  result  of  this  change  was 
the  lengthening  of  infancy,  whereby  Man  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  as  a  plastic  creature  capable 
of  unlimited  psychical  progress.  It  has  been 
shown  that  one  chief  result  of  the  lengthening 
of  infancy  was  the  origination  of  the  family  and 
of  human  society  endowed  with  rudimentary 
moral  ideas  and  moral  sentiments.  It  has  been 
shown  that  through  these  cooperating  processes 
the  difference  between  Man  and  all  lower  crea- 
tures has  come  to  be  a  difference  in  kind  tran- 
scending all  other  differences ;  that  his  appear- 
ance upon  the  earth  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
final  stage  in  the  process  of  development,  the 
last  act  in  the  great  drama  of  creation ;  and  that 
all  the  remaining  work  of  evolution  must  con- 
sist in  the  perfecting  of  the  creature  thus  mar- 
vellously produced.  It  has  been  further  shown 
that  the  perfecting  of  Man  consists  mainly  in 
the  ever  increasing  predominance  of  the  life  of 
the  soul  over  the  life  of  the  body.  And  lastly, 
it  has  been  shown  that,  whereas  the  earlier  stages 
of  human  progress  have  been  characterized  by 
a  struggle  for  existence  Hke  that  through  which 
all  lower  forms  of  life  have  been  developed, 
nevertheless  the  action  of  natural  selection  upon 
Man  is  coming  to  an  end,  and  his  future  de- 
velopment will  be  accomplished  through  the 
207 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

direct  adaptation  of  his  wonderfully  plastic  in- 
telligence to  the  circumstances  in  which  it  is 
placed.  Hence  it  has  appeared  that  war  and  all 
forms  of  strife,  having  ceased  to  discharge  their 
normal  function,  and  having  thus  become  un- 
necessary, will  slowly  die  out ;  ^  that  the  feel- 
ings and  habits  adapted  to  ages  of  strife  will 
ultimately  perish  from  disuse ;  and  that  a  stage 
of  civilization  will  be  reached  in  which  human 
sympathy  shall  be  all  in  all,  and  the  spirit  of 
Christ  shall  reign  supreme  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  earth. 

These  conclusions,  with  the  grounds  upon 
which  they  are  based,  have  been  succinctly  set 
forth  in  my  little  book  entitled  "  The  Destiny 
of  Man  viewed  in  the  Light  of  his  Origin." 
Startling  as  they  may  have  seemed  to  some,  they 
are  no  more  so  than  many  of  the  other  truths 
which  have  been  brought  home  to  us  during 
this  unprecedented  age.  They  are  the  fruit  of 
a  wide  induction  from  the  most  vitally  impor- 
tant facts  which  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has  set 
forth ;  and  they  may  fairly  claim  recognition  as 
an  integral  body  of  philosophic  doctrine  fit  to 
stand  the  test  of  time.  Here  they  are  sum- 
marized as  the  final  step  in  my  argument  con- 
cerning the  true  nature  of  theism.  They  add 
new  meanings  to  the  idea  of  God,  as  it  is  af- 
fected by  modern  knowledge,  while  at  the  same 

^  See  above,  pp.  53-66  ;  also,  American  Political  Ideas ^  ii. 
208 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

time  they  do  but  give  articulate  voice  to  time- 
honoured  truths  which  it  was  feared  the  scepti- 
cism of  our  age  might  have  rendered  dumb  and 
powerless.    For  if  we  express  in  its  most  con- 
centrated form  the  meaning  of  these  conclusions 
regarding  Man's  origin  and  destiny,  we  find  that 
it  affords  the  full  justification  of  the  fundamental 
ideas  and  sentiments  which  have  animated  reli- 
gion at  all  times.    We  see  Man  still  the  crown 
and  glory  of  the  universe  and  the  chief  object 
of  divine  care,  yet  still  the  lame  and  halting 
creature,  loaded  with  a  brute-inheritance  of  ori- 
ginal sin,  whose  ultimate  salvation  is  slowly  to 
be  achieved  through  ages  of  moral  discipline. 
We  see  the  chief  agency  which  produced  him 
—  natural  selection  which  always  works  through 
strife  —  ceasing  to  operate  upon  him,  so  that, 
until  human  strife  shall  be  brought  to  an  end, 
there  goes  on  a  struggle  between  his  lower  and 
his  higher  impulses,  in  which  the  higher  must 
finally  conquer.    And  in  all  this  we  find  the 
strongest  imaginable  incentive  to  right  living, 
yet  one  that  is  still  the  same  in  principle  with 
that  set  forth  by  the  great  Teacher  who  first 
brought  men  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God. 
As  to  the  conception  of  Deity,  in  the  shape 
impressed  upon  it  by  our  modern  knowledge,  I 
believe  I  have  now  said  enough  to  show  that  it 
is  no  empty  formula  or  metaphysical  abstraction 
which  we  would  seek  to  substitute  for  the  living 
209 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

God.  The  infinite  and  eternal  Power  that  is 
manifested  in  every  pulsation  of  the  universe 
is  none  other  than  the  living  God.  We  may- 
exhaust  the  resources  of  metaphysics  in  debat- 
ing how  far  his  nature  may  fitly  be  expressed  in 
terms  applicable  to  the  psychical  nature  of  Man  ; 
such  vain  attempts  will  only  serve  to  show  how 
we  are  dealing  with  a  theme  that  must  ever 
transcend  our  finite  powers  of  conception.  But 
of  some  things  we  may  feel  sure.  Humanity  is 
not  a  mere  local  incident  in  an  endless  and  aim- 
less series  of  cosmical  changes.  The  events  of 
the  universe  are  not  the  work  of  chance,  neither 
are  they  the  outcome  of  blind  necessity.  Prac- 
tically there  is  a  purpose  in  the  world  whereof 
it  is  our  highest  duty  to  learn  the  lesson,  how- 
ever well  or  ill  we  may  fare  in  rendering  a  sci- 
entific account  of  it.  When  from  the  dawn  of 
life  we  see  all  things  working  together  toward 
the  evolution  of  the  highest  spiritual  attributes 
of  Man,  we  know,  however  the  words  may 
stumble  in  which  we  try  to  say  it,  that  God  is 
in  the  deepest  sense  a  moral  Being.  The  ever- 
lasting source  of  phenomena  is  none  other  than 
the  infinite  Power  that  makes  for  righteousness. 
Thou  canst  not  by  searching  find  Him  out ;  yet 
put  thy  trust  in  Him,  and  against  thee  the  gates 
of  hell  shall  not  prevail ;  for  there  is  neither 
wisdom  nor  understanding  nor  counsel  against 
the  Eternal. 


THROUGH    NATURE   TO    GOD 


Soyez  comme  Poiseau  pose  pour  un  instant 

Sur  des  rameaux  trap  freles^ 
S^ui  sent  ployer  la  branche  et  qui  chante  pourtant 

Sachant  qu'il  a  des  ailes  ! 

Victor  Hugo. 


TO  THE  BELOVED  AND  REVERED  MEMORY  OF  MY  FRIEND 

THOMAS  HENRY  HUXLEY 

THIS  BOOK   IS  CONSECRATED 


PREFACE 

A  SINGLE  purpose  runs  throughout  this 
little  book,  though  different  aspects  of 
it  are  treated  in  the  three  several  parts. 
The  first  part,  "  The  Mystery  of  Evil,"  written 
soon  after  "  The  Idea  of  God,"  was  designed  to 
supply  some  considerations  which  for  the  sake 
of  conciseness  had  been  omitted  from  that  book. 
Its  close  kinship  with  the  second  part,  "  The 
Cosmic  Roots  of  Love  and  Self-Sacrifice,"  will 
be  at  once  apparent  to  the  reader. 

That  second  part  is,  with  a  few  slight  changes, 
the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  delivered  by  me  at 
Harvard  University,  in  June,  1895.  ^^^  origi- 
nal title  was  "  Ethics  in  the  Cosmic  Process," 
and  its  form  of  statement  was  partly  determined 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  intended  as  a  reply  to 
Huxley's  famous  Romanes  lecture  delivered  at 
the  University  of  Oxford  in  1893.  Readers  of 
"  The  Destiny  of  Man  "  will  observe  that  I 
have  here  repeated  a  portion  of  the  argument 
of  that  book.  The  detection  of  the  part  played 
by  the  lengthening  of  infancy  in  the  genesis  of 
the  human  race  is  my  own  especial  contribution 
215 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

to  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution,  so  that  I  natu- 
rally feel  somewhat  uncertain  as  to  how  far  that 
subject  is  generally  understood,  and  how  far  a 
brief  allusion  to  it  will  suffice.  It  therefore 
seemed  best  to  recapitulate  the  argument  while 
indicating  its  bearing  upon  the  ethics  of  the 
Cosmic  Process. 

I  can  never  cease  to  regret  that  Huxley 
should  have  passed  away  without  seeing  my 
argument  and  giving  me  the  benefit  of  his  com- 
ments. The  subject  is  one  of  a  kind  which  we 
loved  to  discuss  on  quiet  Sunday  evenings  at 
his  fireside  in  London,  many  years  ago.  I  have 
observed  on  Huxley's  part,  not  only  in  the  Ro- 
manes lecture,  but  also  in  the  charming  "  Pro- 
legomena," written  in  1894,  a  tendency  to  use 
the  phrase  "  cosmic  process "  in  a  restricted 
sense  as  equivalent  to  "  natural  selection  ;  "  and 
doubtless  if  due  allowance  were  made  for  that 
circumstance,  the  appearance  of  antagonism  be- 
tween us  would  be  greatly  diminished.  In  our 
many  talks,  however,  I  always  felt  that,  along 
with  abundant  general  sympathy,  there  was  a 
discernible  diflference  in  mental  attitude.  Upon 
the  proposition  that  "  the  foundation  of  moral- 
ity is  to  .  .  .  give  up  pretending  to  believe  that 
for  which  there  is  no  evidence,"  we  were  heart- 
ily agreed.  But  I  often  found  myself  more 
216 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

strongly  inclined  than  my  dear  friend  to  ask  the 
Tennysonian  question  :  — 

**  Who  forged  that  other  influence. 
That  heat  of  inward  evidence. 
By  which  he  doubts  against  the  sense  ? 

In  the  third  part  of  the  present  little  book, 
"  The  Everlasting  Reality  of  Religion,"  my  aim 
is  to  show  that  "  that  other  influence,"  that  in- 
ward conviction,  the  craving  for  a  final  cause, 
the  theistic  assumption,  is  itself  one  of  the  mas- 
ter facts  of  the  universe,  and  as  much  entitled 
to  respect  as  any  fact  in  physical  nature  can 
possibly  be.  The  argument  flashed  upon  me 
about  ten  years  ago,  while  reading  Herbert 
Spencer's  controversy  with  Frederic  Harrison 
concerning  the  nature  and  reality  of  religion. 
Because  Spencer  derived  historically  the  greater 
part  of  the  modern  belief  in  an  Unseen  World 
from  the  savage's  primeval  world  of  dreams  and 
ghosts,  some  of  his  critics  maintained  that  logi- 
cal consistency  required  him  to  dismiss  the  mod- 
ern belief  as  utterly  false  ;  otherwise  he  would  be 
guilty  of  seeking  to  evolve  truth  from  falsehood. 
By  no  means,  replied  Spencer :  "  Contrariwise, 
the  ultimate  form  of  the  religious  consciousness 
is  the  final  development  of  a  consciousness 
which  at  the  outset  contained  a  germ  of  truth 
217 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

obscured  by  multitudinous  errors."  This  sug- 
gestion has  borne  fruit  in  the  third  part  of  the 
present  volume,  where  I  have  introduced  a 
wholly  new  line  of  argument  to  show  that  the 
Doctrine  of  Evolution,  properly  understood, 
does  not  leave  the  scales  equally  balanced  be- 
tween MateriaHsm  and  Theism,  but  irredeem- 
ably discredits  the  former,  while  it  places  the 
latter  upon  a  firmer  foundation  than  it  has  ever 
before  occupied. 

My  reference  to  the  French  materialism  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  in  its  contrast  with  the 
theism  of  Voltaire,  is  intended  to  point  the 
stronger  contrast  between  the  feeble  survivals 
of  that  materialism  in  our  time  and  the  unshak- 
able theism  which  is  in  harmony  with  the  Doc- 
trine of  Evolution.  When  some  naturalist  like 
Haeckel  assures  us  that  as  evolutionists  we  are 
bound  to  believe  that  death  ends  all,  it  is  a  great 
mistake  to  hold  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution  re- 
sponsible for  such  a  statement.  Haeckel's  opin- 
ion was  never  reached  through  a  scientific  study 
of  evolution ;  it  is  nothing  but  an  echo  from 
the  French  speculation  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Such  a  writer  as  La  Mettrie  proceeded 
upon  the  assumption  that  no  belief  concerning 
anything  in  the  heavens  above,  or  the  earth 
beneath,  or  the  waters  under  the  earth,  is  worthy 
218 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

of  serious  consideration  unless  it  can  be  demon- 
strated by  the  methods  employed  in  physical 
science.  Such  a  mental  attitude  was  natural 
enough  at  a  time  when  the  mediaeval  theory  of 
the  world  was  falling  into  discredit,  while  astron- 
omy and  physics  were  winning  brilliant  victories 
through  the  use  of  new  methods.  It  was  an 
attitude  likely  to  endure  so  long  as  the  old- 
fashioned  fragmentary  and  piecemeal  habits  of 
studying  nature  were  persisted  in ;  and  the 
change  did  not  come  until  the  latter  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

The  encyclopaedic  attainments  of  Alexander 
von  Humboldt,  for  example,  left  him,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  a  materialist  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  But  shortly  before  the  death 
of  that  great  German  scholar,  there  appeared 
the  English  book  which  heralded  a  complete 
reversal  of  the  attitude  of  science.  The  "  Prin- 
ciples of  Psychology,"  published  in  1855  by 
Herbert  Spencer,  was  the  first  application  of 
the  theory  of  evolution  on  a  grand  scale.  Taken 
in  connection  with  the  discoveries  of  natural  se- 
lection, of  spectrum  analysis,  and  of  the  mechan- 
ical equivalence  between  molar  and  molecular 
motions,  it  led  the  way  to  that  sublime  concep- 
tion of  the  Unity  of  Nature  by  which  the  minds 
of  scientific  thinkers  are  now  coming  to  be  dom- 
219 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

mated.  The  attitude  of  mind  which  expressed 
itself  in  a  great  encyclopaedic  book  without  any 
pervading  principle  of  unity,  like  Humboldt's 
"  Kosmos,"  is  now  become  what  the  Germans 
call  ein  ueberwundener  Standpunkt,  or  something 
that  we  have  passed  by  and  left  behind. 

When  we  have  once  thoroughly  grasped  the 
monotheistic  conception  of  the  universe  as  an 
organic  whole,  animated  by  the  omnipresent 
spirit  of  God,  we  have  forever  taken  leave  of 
that  materialism  to  which  the  universe  was 
merely  an  endless  multitude  of  phenomena. 
We  begin  to  catch  glimpses  of  the  meaning  and 
dramatic  purposes  of  things  ;  at  all  events  we 
rest  assured  that  there  really  is  such  a  meaning. 
Though  the  history  of  our  lives,  and  of  all  life 
upon  our  planet,  as  written  down  by  the  un- 
swerving finger  of  Nature,  may  exhibit  all 
events  and  their  final  purpose  in  unmistakable 
sequence,  yet  to  our  limited  vision  the  several 
fragments  of  the  record,  like  the  leaves  of  the 
Cumaean  Sibyl,  caught  by  the  fitful  breezes  of 
circumstance  and  whirled  wantonly  hither  and 
thither.  He  in  such  intricate  confusion  that  no 
ingenuity  can  enable  us  wholly  to  decipher  the 
legend.  But  could  we  attain  to  a  knowledge 
commensurate  with  the  reality  —  could  we  pen- 
etrate the  hidden  depths  where,  according  to 
220 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

Dante  (Paradise,  xxxlii.  85),  the  story  of  Na- 
ture, no  longer  scattered  in  truant  leaves,  is 
bound  with  divine  love  in  a  mystic  volume,  we 
should  find  therein  no  traces  of  hazard  or  in- 
congruity. From  man's  origin  we  gather  hints 
of  his  destiny,  and  the  study  of  evolution  leads 
our  thoughts  through  Nature  to  God. 
Cambridge,  March  2,  1899. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  EVIL 


I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else.  I  form  the  light,  and  create 
darkness  ;  I  make  peace,  and  create  evil.  I  the  Lord  do  all  these  things. 
—  Isaiah  xlv.  6,  7. 

Did  not  our  God  bring  all  this  evil  upon  us  ? —  Nehemiah  xiii.  18. 

OvK  eoiice  S'  17  <t)vaK  iiretvoSiioSrit  oStra  cK  Tii>i>  ^aii'O/iifVwf,  uotrcp  (lox^rip^ 
tfayifiia.  —  ARISTOTLE,  MeiafAytica,  xiii.  3. 


I 


THE  SERPENT'S  PROMISE  TO  THE 
WOMAN 

Your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and 
evil.  —  Genesis  iii.  5, 

THE  legend  in  which  the  serpent  is  re- 
presented as  giving  this  counsel  to  the 
mother  of  mankind  occurs  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Pentateuch  in  the  form  which 
that  collection  of  writings  assumed  after  the  re- 
turn of  the  Jews  from  the  captivity  at  Babylon, 
and  there  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  it 
was  first  placed  there  at  that  time.  Allusions 
to  Eden  in  the  Old  Testament  literature  are 
extremely  scarce,*  and  the  story  of  Eve's  temp- 
tation first  assumes  prominence  in  the  writings 
of  St.  Paul.  The  marks  of  Zoroastrian  thought 
in  it  have  often  been  pointed  out.  This  garden 
of  Eden  is  a  true  Persian  paradise,  situated 
somewhere  in  that  remote  wonderland  of  Ar- 
yana  Vaejo  to  which  all  Iranian  tradition  is  so 
fond  of  pointing  back.  The  wily  serpent  is  a 
genuine  Parsee  serpent,  and  the  spirit  which 
animates  him  is  that  of  the  malicious  and  trick- 
^  Isaiah  li.  3  ;  Joel  ii.  3  ;  Ezekiel  xxviii.  13,  xxxi.  8,  9. 
225 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

some  Ahriman,  who  takes  delight  in  going 
about  after  the  good  creator  Ormuzd  and  spoil- 
ing his  handiwork.  He  is  not  yet  identified 
with  the  terrible  Satan,  the  accusing  angel  who 
finds  out  men's  evil  thoughts  and  deeds.  He 
is  simply  a  mischief-maker,  and  the  punishment 
meted  out  to  him  for  his  mischief  reminds  one 
of  many  a  curious  passage  in  the  beast  epos  of 
primitive  peoples.  As  in  the  stories  which  tell 
why  the  mole  is  blind  or  why  the  fox  has  a 
bushy  tail,  the  serpent's  conduct  is  made  to  ac- 

•  count  for  some  of  his  peculiar  attributes.  As  a 
punishment  he  is  made  to  crawl  upon  his  belly, 
and  be  forever  an  object  of  especial  dread  and 
loathing  to  all  the  children  of  Eve. 

What,  then,  is  the  crime  for  which  the  ser- 
pent Ahriman  thus  makes  bitter  expiation .?  In 
what  way  has  he  spoiled  Ormuzd's  last  and 
most  wonderful  creation  ?  He  has  introduced 
the  sense  of  sin  :  the  man  and  the  woman  are 
afraid,  and  hide  themselves  from  their  Lord 
whom  they  have  offended.  Yet  he  has  been 
not  altogether  a  deceiving  serpent.  In  one  re- 
spect he  has  spoken  profound  truth.  The  man 
and  the  woman  have  become  as  gods.  In  the 
Hebrew  story  Jehovah  says,  "  Behold  the  man 
is  become  as  one  of  us ; "  that  is  to  say,  one  of 
the  Elohim  or  heavenly  host,  who  know  the 
good  and  the  evil.  Man  has  apparently  be- 
come a  creature  against  whom  precautions  need 

I  226 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

to  be  taken.  It  is  hinted  that  by  eating  of  the 
other  tree  and  acquiring  immortal  life  he  would 
achieve  some  result  not  in  accordance  with  Je- 
hovah's will,  yet  which  it  would  then  be  too 
late  to  prevent.  Accordingly,  any  such  pro- 
ceedings are  forestalled  by  driving  the  man  and 
woman  from  the  garden,  and  placing  sentinels 
there  with  a  fiery  sword  which  turns  hither  and 
thither  to  warn  off  all  who  would  tread  the  path 
that  leads  to  the  tree  of  life.  The  anthropo- 
morphism of  the  story  is  as  vivid  as  in  those 
Homeric  scenes  in  which  gods  and  men  con- 
tend with  one  another  in  battle.  It  is  plainly 
indicated  that  Jehovah's  wrath  is  kindled  at 
man's  presumption  in  meddling  with  what  be- 
longs only  to  the  Elohim  ;  man  is  punished  for 
his  arrogance  in  the  same  spirit  as  when,  later 
on,  he  gives  his  daughters  in  marriage  to  the 
sons  of  the  Elohim  and  brings  on  a  deluge,  or 
when  he  strives  to  build  a  tower  that  will  reach 
to  heaven  and  is  visited  with  a  confusion  of 
tongues.  So  here  in  Eden  he  has  come  to  know 
too  much,  and  Ahriman's  heinous  crime  has 
consisted  in  helping  him  to  this  interdicted 
knowledge. 

The  serpent's  promise  to  the  woman  was 
worthy  of  the  wisest  and  most  astute  of  animals. 
But  with  yet  greater  subtlety  he  might  have 
declared,  Except  ye  acquire  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,  ye  cannot  come  to  be  as  gods ; 
227 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

divine  life  can  never  be  yours.  Throughout  the 
Christian  world  this  legend  of  the  lost  paradise 
has  figured  as  the  story  of  the  Fall  of  Man ; 
and  naturally,  because  of  the  theological  use  of 
it  made  by  St.  Paul,  who  first  lifted  the  story  into 
prominence  in  illustrating  his  theory  of  Christ 
as  the  second  Adam  :  since  by  man  came  death 
into  the  world,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrec- 
tion from  death  and  from  sin.  That  there  is 
truth  of  the  most  vital  sort  in  the  Pauline  theory 
is  undeniable  ;  but  there  are  many  things  that 
will  bear  looking  at  from  opposite  points  of 
view,  for  aspects  of  truth  are  often  to  be  found 
on  both  sides  of  the  shield,  and  there  is  a  sense 
in  which  we  may  regard  the  loss  of  paradise  as 
in  itself  the  beginning  of  the  Rise  of  Man.  For 
this,  indeed,  we  have  already  found  some  justi- 
fication in  the  legend  itself  It  is  in  no  spirit 
of  paradox  that  I  make  this  suggestion.  The 
more  patiently  one  scrutinizes  the  processes 
whereby  things  have  come  to  be  what  they  are, 
the  more  deeply  is  one  impressed  with  its  pro- 
found significance. 


228 


II 

THE   PILGRIM'S   BURDEN 

BUT  before  I  can  properly  elucidate  this 
view,  and  make  clear  what  is  meant  by 
connecting  the  loss  of  innocence  with  the 
beginning  of  the  Rise  of  Man,  it  is  necessary  to 
bestow  a  few  words  upon  a  well-worn  theme, 
and  recall  to  mind  the  helpless  and  hopeless 
bewilderment  into  which  all  theologies  and  all 
philosophies  have  been  thrown  by  the  problem 
of  the  existence  of  evil.  From  the  ancient  Greek 
and  Hebrew  thinkers  who  were  saddened  by  the 
spectacle  of  wickedness  insolent  and  unpunished, 
down  to  the  aged  Voltaire  and  the  youthful 
Goethe  who  felt  their  theories  of  God's  justice 
quite  baffled  by  the  Lisbon  earthquake,  or  down 
to  the  atheistic  pessimist  of  our  own  time  who 
asserts  that  the  Power  which  sustains  the  world 
is  but  a  blind  and  terrible  force  without  concern 
for  man's  welfare  of  body  or  of  soul,  —  from 
first  to  last  the  history  of  philosophy  teems 
with  the  mournful  instances  of  this  discourage- 
ment. In  that  tale  of  War  and  Peace  wherein 
the  fervid  genius  of  Tolstoi  has  depicted  scenes 
and  characters  of  modern  life  with  truthful  gran- 
229 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

deur  like  that  of  the  ancient  epic  poems,  when 
our  friend,  the  genial  and  thoughtful  hero  of 
the  story,  stands  in  the  public  square  at  Mos- 
cow, uncertain  of  his  fate,  while  the  kindly 
bright-faced  peasant  and  the  eager  pale  young 
mechanic  are  shot  dead  by  his  side,  and  all  for 
a  silly  suspicion  on  the  part  of  Napoleon's  sol- 
diery ;  as  he  stands  and  sees  the  bodies,  still 
warm  and  quivering,  tossed  into  a  trench  and 
loose  earth  hastily  shovelled  over  them,  his 
manly  heart  surges  in  rebellion  against  a  world 
in  which  such  things  can  be,  and  a  voice  within 
him  cries  out,  —  not  in  the  mood  in  which  the 
fool  crieth,  but  with  the  anguish  of  a  tender  soul 
wrung  by  the  sight  of  stupendous  iniquity, — 
"  There  is  no  God  !  "  It  is  but  the  utterance 
of  an  old-world  feeling,  natural  enough  to  hard- 
pressed  and  sorely  tried  humanity  in  those  mo- 
ments that  have  come  to  it  only  too  often,  when 

'  triumphant  wrong  is  dreadfully  real  and  close  at 
hand,  while  anything  like  compensation  seems 
shadowy  and  doubtful  and  far  away. 

w  It  is  this  feeling  that  has  created  the  'belief 
in  a  devil,  an  adversary  to  the  good  God,  an 
adversary  hard  to  conquer  or  baffle.  The  feel- 
ing underlies  every  theological  creed,  and  in 
every  system  of  philosophy  we  find  it  lurking 
somewhere.  In  these  dark  regions  of  thought, 
which  science  has  such  scanty  means  for  explor- 
ing, the  statements  which  make  up  a  creed  are 
230 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

apt  to  be  the  outgrowth  of  such  an  all-pervad- 
ing sentiment,  while  their  form  will  be  found  to 
vary  with  the  knowledge  of  nature  —  meagre 
enough  at  all  times,  and  even  in  our  boasted 
time  —  which  happens  to  characterize  the  age  in 
which  they  are  made.  Hence,  well-nigh  univer- 
sally has  philosophy  proceeded  upon  the  as- 
sumption, whether  tacit  or  avowed,  that  pain 
and  wrong  are  things  hard  to  be  reconciled  with 
the  theory  that  the  world  is  created  and  ruled 
by  a  Being  at  once  all-powerful  and  all-benevo- 
lent. Why  does  such  a  Being  permit  the  misery 
that  we  behold  encompassing  us  on  every  side? 
When  we  would  fain  believe  that  God  is  love 
indeed,  and  love  creation's  final  law,  how  comes 
it  that  nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw  with  ravine, 
shrieks  against  our  creed  ?  If  this  question  could 
be  fairly  answered,  does  it  not  seem  as  if  the 
burden  of  life,  which  so  often  seems  intolerable, 
would  forthwith  slip  from  our  shoulders,  and 
leave  us,  like  Bunyan's  pilgrim,  free  and  bold 
and  light-hearted  to  contend  against  all  the  ills 
of  the  world  ? 

Ever  since  human  intelligence  became  en- 
lightened enough  to  grope  for  a  meaning  and 
purpose  in  human  life,  this  problem  of  the  ex- 
istence of  evil  has  been  the  burden  of  man.  In 
the  effort  to  throw  it  off,  leaders  of  thought 
have  had  recourse  to  almost  every  imaginable 
device.  It  has  usually  been  found  necessary  to 
231 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

represent  the  Creator  as  finite  either  in  power 
or  in  goodness,  although  the  limitation  is  sel- 
dom avowed,  except  by  writers  who  have  a  lean- 
ing toward  atheism  and  take  a  grim  pleasure  in 
pointing  out  flaws  in  the  constitution  of  things. 
Among  modern  writers  the  most  conspicuous 
instance  of  this  temper  is  afforded  by  that  much 
too  positive  philosopher  Auguste  Comte,  who 
would  fain  have  tipped  the  earth's  axis  at  a  dif- 
ferent angle  and  altered  the  arrangements  of 
nature  in  many  fanciful  ways.  He  was  like  Al- 
phonso,  the  learned  king  of  Castile,  who  regret- 
ted that  he  had  not  been  present  when  the  world 
was  created,  —  he  could  have  given  such  excel- 
lent advice ! 

In  a  very  different  mood  the  great  Leibnitz, 
in  his  famous  theory  of  optimism,  argued  that 
a  perfect  world  is  in  the  nature  of  things  im- 
possible, but  that  the  world  in  which  we  live  is 
the  best  of  possible  worlds.  The  limitation  of 
the  Creator's  power  is  made  somewhat  more 
explicitly  by  Plato,  who  regarded  the  world  as 
the  imperfect  realization  of  a  Divine  Idea  that 
in  itself  is  perfect.  It  is  owing  to  the  intracta- 
bleness  and  vileness  of  matter  that  the  Divine 
Idea  finds  itself  so  imperfectly  realized.  Thus 
the  Creator's  power  is  limited  by  the  nature  of 
the  material  out  of  which  he  makes  the  world. 
In  other  words,  the  world  in  which  we  live  is 
the  best  the  Creator  could  make  out  of  the 
232 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

wretched  material  at  his  disposal.  This  Platonic 
view  is  closely  akin  to  that  of  Leibnitz,  but  is 
expressed  in  such  wise  as  to  lend  itself  more 
readily  to  myth-making.  Matter  is  not  only 
considered  as  what  Dr.  Martineau  would  call  a 
"  datum  objective  to  God,"  but  it  is  endowed 
with  a  diabolical  character  of  its  own. 


^^33 


Ill 

MANICH^ISM  AND  CALVINISM 

IT  is  but  a  step  from  this  to  the  compli- 
cated personifications  of  Gnosticism,  with 
its  Demiurgus,  or  inferior  spirit  that  cre- 
ated the  world.  By  some  of  the  Gnostics  the 
Creator  was  held  to  be  merely  an  inferior  em- 
anation from  God,  a  notion  which  had  a  power- 
ful indirect  effect  upon  the  shaping  of  Christian 
doctrine  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  of  our 
era.  A  similar  thought  appears  in  the  mournful 
question  asked  by  Tennyson's  Arthur :  — 

**  O  me  !  for  why  is  all  around  us  here 
As  if  some  lesser  god  had  made  the  world 
And  had  not  force  to  shape  it  as  he  would  ? ' ' 

But  some  Gnostics  went  so  far  as  to  hold  that 
the  world  was  originally  created  by  the  Devil, 
and  is  to  be  gradually  purified  and  redeemed  by 
the  beneficent  power  of  God  as  manifested 
through  Jesus  Christ.  This  notion  is  just  the 
opposite  to  that  of  the  Vendidad,  which  repre- 
sents the  world  as  coming  into  existence  pure 
and  perfect,  only  to  be  forthwith  defiled  by  the 
trail  of  the  serpent  Ahriman.  In  both  these 
opposing  theories  the  divine  power  is  distinctly 

234 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

and  avowedly  curtailed  by  the  introduction  of  a 
rival  power  that  is  diabolical ;  upon  this  point 
Parsee  and  Gnostic  are  agreed.  Distinct  sources 
are  postulated  for  the  evil  and  the  good.  The 
one  may  be  regarded  as  infinite  in  goodness, 
the  other  as  infinite  in  badness,  and  the  world 
in  which  we  live  is  a  product  of  the  everlasting 
conflict  between  the  two.  This  has  been  the 
fundamental  idea  in  all  Manichaean  systems, 
and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  it  has  always  ex- 
erted a  mighty  influence  upon  Christian  the- 
ology. The  Christian  conception  of  the  Devil, 
as  regards  its  deeper  ethical  aspect,  has  owed 
much  to  the  Parsee  conception  of  Ahriman.  It 
can  hardly  be  said,  however,  that  there  has  been 
any  coherent,  closely  reasoned,  and  generally 
accepted  Christian  theory  of  the  subject.  The 
notions  just  mentioned  are  in  themselves  too 
shadowy  and  vague,  they  bear  too  plainly  the 
marks  of  their  mythologic  pedigree,  to  admit  of 
being  worked  into  such  a  coherent  and  closely 
reasoned  theory.  Christian  thought  has  simply 
played  fast  and  loose  with  these  conceptions, 
speaking  in  one  breath  of  divine  omnipotence, 
and  in  the  next  alluding  to  the  conflict  be- 
tween good  and  evil  in  language  fraught  with 
Manichaeism. 

In  recent  times  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  has 
shown  a  marked  preference  for  the  Manichaean 
view,  and  has  stated  it  with  clearness  and  con- 

235 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

sistency,  because  he  is  not  hampered  by  the  feel- 
ing that  he  ought  to  reach  one  conclusion  rather 
than  another.    Mr.  Mill  does  not  urge  his  view 
upon  the  reader,  nor  even  defend  it  as  his  own 
view,  but  simply  suggests  it  as  perhaps  the  view 
which  is  for  the  theist  most  free  from  difficul- 
ties and  contradictions.   Mr.  Mill  does  not,  like 
the  Manichaeans,  imagine  a  personified  principle 
of  evil;   nor  does  he,  like  Plato,  entertain  a 
horror  of  what  is  sometimes,  with  amusing  ve- 
hemence, stigmatized  as  "  brute  matter."     He 
does  not  undertake  to  suggest  how  or  why  the 
divine  power  is  limited;  but  he  distinctly  pre- 
fers the  alternative  which  sacrifices  the  attribute 
of  omnipotence  in  order  to  preserve  in  our  con- 
ception of  Deity  the  attribute  of  goodness.   Ac- 
cording to   Mr.  Mill,  we  may  regard  the  all- 
wise  and  holy  Deity  as  a  creative  energy  that  is 
perpetually  at  work  in  eliminating  evil  from  the 
universe.    His  wisdom  is  perfect,  his  goodness 
is  infinite,  but  his  power  is  limited  by  some  in- 
explicable viciousness  in  the  original  constitu- 
tion of  things  which  it  must  require  a  long  suc- 
cession of  ages  to  overcome.     In  such  a  view 
Mr.  Mill  sees  much  that  is  ennobling.    The 
humblest  human  being  who  resists  an  impulse 
to  sin,  or  helps  in  the  sHghtest  degree  to  leave 
the  world  better  than  he  found  it,  may  actually 
be  regarded  as  a  participator  in  the  creative  work 
of  God ;  and  thus  each  act  of  human  life  ac- 
236 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

quires  a  solemn  significance  that  is  almost  over- 
whelming to  contemplate. 

These  suggestions  of  Mr.  Mill  are  extremely 
interesting,  because  he  was  the  last  great  mod- 
ern thinker  whose  early  training  was  not  influ- 
enced by  that  prodigious  expansion  of  scientific 
knowledge  which,  since  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  has  taken  shape  in  the  doctrine 
of  evolution.  This  movement  began  early 
enough  to  determine  the  intellectual  careers  of 
eminent  thinkers  born  between  1820  and  1830, 
such  as  Spencer  and  Huxley.  Mr.  Mill  was  a 
dozen  years  too  old  for  this.  He  was  born  at 
nearly  the  same  time  as  Mr.  Darwin,  but  his 
mental  habits  were  formed  too  soon  for  him  to 
profit  fully  by  the  new  movement  of  thought ; 
and  although  his  attitude  toward  the  new  ideas 
was  hospitable,  they  never  fructified  in  his  mind. 
While  his  thinking  has  been  of  great  value  to 
the  world,  much  of  it  belongs  to  an  era  which 
we  have  now  left  far  behind.  This  is  illustrated 
in  the  degree  to  which  he  was  influenced  by  the 
speculations  of  Auguste  Comte.  Probably  no 
two  leaders  of  thought,  whose  dates  of  birth 
were  scarcely  a  quarter  of  a  century  apart,  were 
ever  separated  by  such  a  stupendous  gulf  as 
that  which  intervenes  between  Auguste  Comte 
and  Herbert  Spencer,  and  this  fact  may  serve 
as  an  index  to  the  rapidity  of  movement  which 
has  characterized  the  nineteenth  century.    An- 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

other  illustration  of  the  old-fashioned  character 
of  Mill's  philosophy  is  to  be  seen  in  his  use  of 
Paley's  argument  from  design  in  support  of  the 
belief  in  a  beneficent  Creator.  Mill  adopted 
this  argument,  and,  as  a  professed  free-thinker, 
carried  it  to  the  logical  conclusion  from  which 
Paley,  as  a  churchman,  could  not  but  shrink. 
This  was  the  conclusion  which  I  have  already 
mentioned,  that  God's  creative  power  has  been 
limited  by  some  inexplicable  viciousness  in  the 
original  constitution  of  things. 

I  feel  as  if  one  could  not  be  too  grateful  to 
Mr.  Mill  for  having  so  neatly  and  sharply 
stated,  in  modern  language  and  with  modern 
illustrations,  this  old  conclusion,  which  after  all 
is  substantially  that  of  Plato  and  the  Gnostics. 
For  the  shock  which  such  a  clear,  bold  state- 
ment gives  to  our  religious  feelings  is  no  greater 
than  the  shock  with  which  it  strikes  counter  to 
our  modern  scientific  philosophy.  Suppose  we 
could  bring  back  to  earth  a  Calvinist  of  the 
seventeenth  century  and  question  him.  He 
might  well  say  that  the  God  which  Mr.  Mill 
offers  us,  shorn  of  the  attribute  of  omnipotence, 
is  no  God  at  all.  He  would  say  with  the  He- 
brew prophet,  that  God  has  created  the  evil 
along  with  the  good,  and  that  he  has  done  so 
for  a  purpose  which  human  reason,  could  it 
once  comprehend  all  the  conditions  of  the  case, 
would  most  surely  approve  as  infinitely  wise 
238 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

and  holy.  Our  Calvinlst  would  ask  who  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  original  constitution  of  things 
if  not  the  Creator  himself,  and  in  supposing 
anything  essentially  vicious  in  that  constitution, 
have  not  Plato  and  the  Gnostics  and  the  Mani- 
chaeans  and  Mr.  Mill  simply  taken  counsel  of 
their  ignorance  ?  Nay,  more,  the  Calvinist 
would  declare  that  if  we  really  understood  the 
universe  of  which  humanity  is  a  part,  we  should 
find  scientific  justification  for  that  supreme  and 
victorious  faith  which  cries,  "  Though  he  slay 
me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him  !  "  The  man  who 
has  acquired  such  faith  as  this  is  the  true  free- 
man of  the  universe,  clad  in  stoutest  coat  of 
mail  against  disaster  and  sophistry,  —  the  man 
whom  nothing  can  enslave,  and  whose  guerdon 
is  the  serene  happiness  that  can  never  be  taken 
away. 


239 


IV 

THE   DRAMATIC   UNITY   OF 
NATURE 

NOW  in  these  strong  assertions  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  Calvinist  is  much  more 
nearly  in  accord  with  our  modern 
knowledge  than  are  Plato  and  Mill.  It  is  not 
wise  to  hazard  statements  as  to  what  the  future 
may  bring  forth,  but  I  do  not  see  how  the  dual- 
ism implied  in  all  these  attempts  to  refer  good 
and  evil  to  different  creative  sources  can  ever 
be  seriously  maintained  again.  The  advance  of 
modern  science  carries  us  irresistibly  to  what 
some  German  philosophers  call  monism,  but 
I  prefer  to  call  it  monotheism.  In  getting  rid 
of  the  Devil  and  regarding  the  universe  as  the 
multiform  manifestation  of  a  single  all-pervad- 
ing Deity,  we  become  for  the  first  time  pure 
and  uncompromising  monotheists,  —  believers 
in  the  ever-living,  unchangeable,  and  all-wise 
Heavenly  Fp.ther,  in  whom  we  may  declare  our 
trust  without  the  faintest  trace  of  mental  reser- 
vation. 

If  we  can  truly  take  such  a  position,  and  hold 
it  rationally,  it  is  the  modern  science  so  apt  to 
240 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

be  decried  by  the  bats  and  owls  of  orthodoxy 
that  justifies  us  in  doing  so.  For  what  is  the 
philosophic  purport  of  these  beautiful  and  sub- 
lime discoveries  with  which  the  keen  insight  and 
patient  diligence  of  modern  students  of  science 
are  beginning  to  be  rewarded  ?  What  is  the 
lesson  that  is  taught  alike  by  the  correlation  of 
forces,  by  spectrum  analysis,  by  the  revelations 
of  chemistry  as  to  the  subtle  behaviour  of  mole- 
cules inaccessible  to  the  eye  of  sense,  by  the 
astronomy  that  is  beginning  to  sketch  the  phy- 
sical history  of  countless  suns  in  the  firmament, 
by  the  palaeontology  which  is  slowly  unravel- 
ling the  wonders  of  past  life  upon  the  earth 
through  millions  of  ages?  What  is  the  grand 
lesson  that  is  taught  by  all  this  ?  It  is  the  les- 
son of  the  unity  of  nature.  To  learn  it  rightly 
is  to  learn  that  all  the  things  that  we  can  see  and 
know,  in  the  course  of  our  life  in  this  world,  are 
so  intimately  woven  together  that  nothing  could 
be  left  out  without  reducing  the  whole  marvel- 
lous scheme  to  chaos.  Whatever  else  may  be 
true,  the  conviction  is  brought  home  to  us  that 
in  all  this  endless  multifariousness  there  is  one 
single  principle  at  work,  that  all  is  tending  to- 
ward an  end  that  was  involved  from  the  very 
beginning,  if  one  can  speak  of  beginnings  and 
ends  where  the  process  is  eternal.  The  whole 
universe  is  animated  by  a  single  principle  of 
life,  and  whatever  we  see  in  it,  whether  to  our 
241 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

half-trained  understanding  and  narrow  experi- 
ence it  may  seem  to  be  good  or  bad,  is  an  in- 
dispensable part  of  the  stupendous  scheme.  As 
Aristotle  said,  so  long  ago,  in  one  of  those 
characteristic  flashes  of  insight  into  the  heart  of 
things  in  which  no  one  has  ever  excelled  him, 
in  nature  there  is  nothing  that  is  out  of  place 
or  interpolated,  as  in  an  ill-constructed  drama. 
To-day  we  can  begin  to  realize  how  much 
was  implied  in  this  prophetic  hint  of  Aristotle's, 
for  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  whatever  may 
be  the  function  of  evil  in  this  world,  it  is  un- 
questionably an  indispensable  function,  and  not 
something  interpolated  from  without.  What- 
ever exists  is  part  of  the  dramatic  whole,  and 
this  can  quickly  be  proved.  The  goodness  in 
the  world  —  all  that  we  love  and  praise  and  em- 
ulate—  we  are  ready  enough  to  admit  into  our 
scheme  of  things,  and  to  rest  upon  it  our  belief 
in  God.  The  misery,  the  pain,  the  wickedness, 
we  would  fain  leave  out.  But  if  there  were  no 
such  thing  as  evil,  how  could  there  be  such  a 
thing  as  goodness  ?  Or  to  put  it  somewhat  dif- 
ferently, if  we  had  never  known  anything  but 
goodness,  how  could  we  ever  distinguish  it  from 
evil?  How  could  we  recognize  it  as  good? 
How  would  its  quality  of  goodness  in  any  wise 
interest  or  concern  us  ?  This  question  goes 
down  to  the  bottom  of  things,  for  it  appeals  to 
the  fundamental  conditions  according  to  which 
242 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

conscious  intelligence  exists  at  all.  Its  answer 
will  therefore  be  likely  to  help  us.  It  will  not 
enable  us  to  solve  the  problem  of  evil,  en- 
shrouded as  it  is  in  a  mystery  impenetrable  by 
finite  intelligence,  but  it  will  help  us  to  state 
the  problem  correctly  ;  and  surely  this  is  no 
small  help.  In  the  mere  work  of  purifying  our 
intellectual  vision  there  is  that  which  heals  and 
soothes  us.  To  learn  to  see  things  without  dis- 
tortion is  to  prepare  one's  self  for  taking  the 
world  in  the  right  mood,  and  in  this  we  find 
strength  and  consolation. 


243 


WHAT   CONSCIOUS   LIFE  IS  MADE 

OF 

TO  return  to  our  question,  how  could 
we  have  good  without  evil,  we  must 
pause  for  a  moment  and  inquire  into  the 
constitution  of  the  human  mind.  What  we  call 
the  soul,  the  mind,  the  conscious  self,  is  some- 
thing strange  and  wonderful.  In  our  ordinary 
efforts  to  conceive  it,  invisible  and  impalpable 
as  it  is,  we  are  apt  to  try  so  strenuously  to  di- 
vorce it  from  the  notion  of  substance  that  it 
seems  ethereal,  unreal,  ghostlike.  Yet  of  all 
realities  the  soul  is  the  most  solid,  sound,  and 
undeniable.  Thoughts  and  feelings  are  the  fun- 
damental facts  from  which  there  is  no  escaping. 
Our  whole  universe,  from  the  sands  on  the  sea- 
shore to  the  flaming  suns  that  throng  the  Milky 
Way,  is  built  up  of  sights  and  sounds,  of  tastes 
and  odours,  of  pleasures  and  pains,  of  sensa- 
tions of  motion  and  resistance  either  felt  directly 
or  inferred.  This  is  no  ghostly  universe,  but  all 
intensely  real  as  it  exists  in  that  intensest  of 
realities,  the  human  soul !  Consciousness,  the 
soul's  fundamental  fact,  is  the  most  fundamental 
244 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

of  facts.  But  a  truly  marvellous  affair  is  con- 
sciousness !  The  most  general  truth  that  we  can 
assert  with  regard  to  it  is  this,  that  it  exists  only 
by  virtue  of  incessant  change.  A  state  of  con- 
sciousness that  should  continue  through  an  ap- 
preciable interval  of  time  without  undergoing 
change  would  not  be  a  state  of  consciousness. 
It  would  be  unconsciousness. 

This  perpetual  change,  then,  is  what  makes 
conscious  life.  It  is  only  by  virtue  of  this  end- 
less procession  of  fleeting  phases  of  conscious- 
ness that  the  human  soul  exists  at  all.  It  is  thus 
that  we  are  made.  Why  we  should  have  been 
made  thus  is  a  question  aiming  so  far  beyond 
our  ken  that  it  is  idle  to  ask  it.  We  might  as 
well  inquire  whether  Infinite  Power  could  have 
made  twice  two  equal  five.  We  must  rest  con- 
tent with  knowing  that  it  is  thus  we  were 
created  ;  it  is  thus  that  the  human  soul  exists. 
Just  as  dynamic  astronomy  rests  upon  the  law 
of  gravitation,  just  as  physics  is  based  upon  the 
properties  of  waves,  so  the  modern  science  of 
mind  has  been  built  upon  the  fundamental 
truth  that  consciousness  exists  only  by  virtue 
of  unceasing  change.  Our  conscious  life  is  a 
stream  of  varying  psychical  states  which  quickly 
follow  one  another  in  a  perpetual  shimmer, 
with  never  an  instant  of  rest.  The  elementary 
psychical  states,  indeed,  lie  below  consciousness, 
or,  as  we  say,  they  are  sub-conscious.  We  may 
245 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

call  these  primitive  pulsations  the  psychical 
molecules  out  of  which  are  compounded  the 
feelings  and  thoughts  that  well  up  into  the  full 
stream  of  consciousness.  Just  as  in  chemistry 
we  explain  the  qualitative  differences  among 
things  as  due  to  diversities  of  arrangement 
among  compounded  molecules  and  atoms,  so  in 
psychology  we  have  come  to  see  that  thoughts 
and  feelings  in  all  their  endless  variety  are  di- 
versely compounded  of  sub-conscious  psychical 
molecules. 

Musical  sounds  furnish  us  with  a  simple  and 
familiar  illustration  of  this.  When  the  sounds 
of  taps  or  blows  impinge  upon  the  ear  slowly, 
at  the  rate  of  not  more  than  sixteen  in  a  second, 
they  are  cognized  as  separate  and  non-musical 
noises.  When  they  pass  beyond  that  rate  of 
speed,  they  are  cognized  as  a  continuous  musi- 
cal tone  of  very  low  pitch  ;  a  state  of  conscious- 
ness which  seems  simple,  but  which  we  now  see 
is  really  compound.  As  the  speed  of  the  blows 
increases,  further  qualitative  differences  arise  ; 
the  musical  tone  rises  in  pitch  until  it  becomes 
too  acute  for  the  ear  to  cognize,  and  thus  van- 
ishes from  consciousness.  But  this  is  far  from 
being  the  whole  story  ;  for  the  series  of  blows 
or  pulsations  make  not  only  a  single  vivid  fun- 
damental tone,  but  also  a  multifarious  compan- 
ion group  of  fainter  overtones,  and  the  diverse 
blending  of  these  faint  harmonics  constitutes  the 
246 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

whole  difference  in  tone  quality  between  the 
piano  and  the  flute,  the  violin  and  the  trumpet, 
or  any  other  instruments.  If  you  take  up  a 
violin  and  sound  the  F  one  octave  above  the 
treble  staff,  there  are  produced,  in  the  course 
of  a  single  second,  several  thousand  psychical 
states  which  together  make  up  the  sensation  of 
pitch,  fifty-five  times  as  many  psychical  states 
which  together  make  up  the  sensation  of  tone 
quality,  and  an  immense  number  of  other  psy- 
chical states  which  together  make  up  the  sensa- 
tion of  intensity.  These  psychical  states  are  not, 
in  any  strict  sense  of  the  term,  states  of  con- 
sciousness ;  for  if  they  were  to  rise  individually 
into  consciousness,  the  result  would  be  an  im- 
mense multitude  of  sensations,  and  not  a  single 
apparently  homogeneous  sensation.  There  is 
no  alternative  but  to  conclude  that  in  this  case 
a  seemingly  simple  state  of  consciousness  is  in 
reality  compounded  of  an  immense  multitude 
of  sub-conscious  psychical  changes. 

Now,  what  is  thus  true  in  the  case  of  musi- 
cal sounds  is  equally  true  of  all  states  of  con- 
sciousness whatever,  both  those  that  we  call  in- 
tellectual and  those  that  we  call  emotional.  All 
are  highly  compounded  aggregates  of  innumer- 
able minute  sub-conscious  psychical  pulsations, 
if  we  may  so  call  them.  In  every  stream  of 
human  consciousness  that  we  call  a  soul  each 
second  of  time  witnesses  thousands  of  infinitely 
247 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

small  changes,  in  which  one  fleeting  group  of 
pulsations  in  the  primordial  mind-stuff  gives 
place  to  another  and  a  different  but  equally 
fleeting  group.  Each  group  is  unlike  its  imme- 
diate predecessor.  The  absence  of  difference 
would  be  continuance,  and  continuance  means 
stagnation,  blankness,  negation,  death.  That 
ceaseless  flutter,  in  which  the  quintessence  of 
conscious  life  consists,  is  kept  up  by  the  per- 
petual introduction  of  the  relations  of  likeness 
and  unlikeness.  Each  one  of  the  infinitesimal 
changes  is  a  little  act  of  discrimination,  a  re- 
cognition of  a  unit  of  feehng  as  either  like  or 
unlike  some  other  unit  of  feeling.  So  in  these 
depths  of  the  soul's  life  the  arrangements  and 
re-arrangements  of  units  go  on,  while  on  the  sur- 
face the  results  appear  from  moment  to  moment 
in  sensations  keen  or  dull,  in  perceptions  clear 
or  vague,  in  judgments  wise  or  foolish,  in  mem- 
ories gay  or  sad,  in  sordid  or  lofty  trains  of 
thought,  in  gusts  of  anger  or  thrills  of  love. 
The  whole  fabric  of  human  thought  and  human 
emotion  is  built  up  out  of  minute  sub-conscious 
discriminations  of  likenesses  and  unlikenesses, 
just  as  much  as  the  material  world  in  all  its 
beauty  is  built  up  out  of  undulations  among 
invisible  molecules. 


248 


VI 


WITHOUT  THE  ELEMENT  OF 
ANTAGONISM  THERE  COULD 
BE  NO  CONSCIOUSNESS,  AND 
THEREFORE   NO   WORLD 

WE  may  now  come  up  out  of  these 
depths,  accessible  only  to  the  plum- 
met of  psychologic  analysis,  and  move 
with  somewhat  freer  gait  in  the  region  of 
common  and  familiar  experiences.  It  is  an  un- 
deniable fact  that  we  cannot  know  anything 
whatever  except  as  contrasted  with  something 
else.  The  contrast  may  be  bold  and  sharp,  or 
it  may  dwindle  into  a  slight  discrimination,  but 
it  must  be  there.  If  the  figures  on  your  canvas 
are  indistinguishable  from  the  background,  there 
is  surely  no  picture  to  be  seen.  Some  element 
of  unlikeness,  some  germ  of  antagonism,  some 
chance  for  discrimination,  is  essential  to  every 
act  of  knowing.  I  might  have  illustrated  this 
point  concretely  without  all  the  foregoing  ex- 
planation, but  I  have  aimed  at  paying  it  the  re- 
spect due  to  its  vast  importance.  I  have  wished 
to  show  how  the  fact  that  we  cannot  know  any- 
thing whatever  except  as  contrasted  with  some- 
249 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

thing  else  is  a  fact  that  is  deeply  rooted  in  the 
innermost  structure  of  the  human  mind.  It  is 
not  a  superficial  but  a  fundamental  truth,  that 
if  there  were  no  colour  but  red  it  would  be  ex- 
actly the  same  thing  as  if  there  were  no  colour  at 
all.  In  a  world  of  unqualified  redness,  our  state 
of  mind  with  regard  to  colour  would  be  pre- 
cisely like  our  state  of  mind  in  the  present  world 
with  regard  to  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere 
if  we  were  always  to  stay  in  one  place.  We  are 
always  bearing  up  against  the  burden  of  this 
deep  aerial  ocean,  nearly  fifteen  pounds  upon 
every  square  inch  of  our  bodies  ;  but  until  we 
can  get  a  chance  to  discriminate,  as  by  climbing 
a  mountain,  we  are  quite  unconscious  of  this 
heavy  pressure.  In  the  same  way,  if  we  knew 
but  one  colour  we  should  know  no  colour.  If 
our  ears  were  to  be  filled  with  one  monotonous 
roar  of  Niagara,  unbroken  by  alien  sounds,  the 
effect  upon  consciousness  would  be  absolute 
silence.  If  our  palates  had  never  come  in  con- 
tact with  any  tasteful  thing  save  sugar,  we  should 
know  no  more  of  sweetness  than  of  bitterness. 
If  we  had  never  felt  physical  pain,  we  could 
not  recognize  physical  pleasure.  For  want  of 
the  contrasted  background  its  pleasurableness 
would  be  non-existent.  And  in  just  the  same 
way  it  follows  that  without  knowing  that  which 
is  morally  evil  we  could  not  possibly  recognize 
that  which  is  morally  good.  Of  these  antago- 
250 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

nist  correlatives,  the  one  is  unthinkable  in  the 
absence  of  the  other.  In  a- sinless  and  painless 
world,  human  conduct  might  possess  more  out- 
ward marks  of  perfection  than  any  saint  ever 
dreamed  of;  but  the  moral  element  would  be 
lacking  ;  the  goodness  would  have  no  more  sig- 
nificance in  our  conscious  life  than  that  load  of 
atmosphere  which  we  are  always  carrying  about 
with  us. 

We  are  thus  brought  to  a  striking  conclusion, 
the  essential  soundness  of  which  cannot  be  gain- 
said. In  a  happy  world  there  must  be  sorrow 
and  pain,  and  in  a  moral  world  the  knowledge 
of  evil  is  indispensable.  The  stern  necessity  for 
this  has  been  proved  to  inhere  in  the  innermost 
constitution  of  the  human  soul.  It  is  part  and 
parcel  of  the  universe.  To  him  who  is  disposed 
to  cavil  at  the  world  which  God  has  in  such 
wise  created,  we  may  fairly  put  the  question 
whether  the  prospect  of  escape  from  its  ills 
would  ever  induce  him  to  put  off  this  human 
consciousness,  and  accept  in  exchange  some 
form  of  existence  unknown  and  inconceivable  ! 
The  alternative  is  clear :  on  the  one  hand  a 
world  with  sin  and  suffering,  on  the  other  hand 
an  unthinkable  world  in  which  conscious  life 
does  not  involve  contrast. 

The  profound  truth  of  Aristotle's  remark  is 
thus  more  forcibly  than  ever  brought  home  to 
us.  We  do  not  find  that  evil  has  been  inter- 
251 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

polated  into  the  universe  from  without;  we 
find  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  an  indispensable 
part  of  the  dramatic  whole.  God  is  the  creator 
of  evil,  and  from  the  eternal  scheme  of  things 
diabolism  is  forever  excluded.  Ormuzd  and 
Ahriman  have  had  their  day  and  perished,  along 
with  the  doctrine  of  special  creations  and  other 
fancies  of  the  untutored  human  mind.  From 
our  present  standpoint  we  may  fairly  ask,  What 
would  have  been  the  worth  of  that  primitive 
innocence  portrayed  in  the  myth  of  the  garden 
of  Eden,  had  it  ever  been  realized  in  the  life  of 
men  ?  What  would  have  been  the  moral  value 
or  significance  of  a  race  of  human  beings  igno- 
rant of  sin,  and  doing  beneficent  acts  with  no 
more  consciousness  or  volition  than  the  deftly 
contrived  machine  that  picks  up  raw  material 
at  one  end,  and  turns  out  some  finished  product 
at  the  other  ?  Clearly,  for  strong  and  resolute 
men  and  women  an  Eden  would  be  but  a 
fool's  paradise.  How  could  anything  fit  to  be 
called  character  have  ever  been  produced  there  ? 
But  for  tasting  the  forbidden  fruit,  in  what  re- 
spect could  man  have  become  a  being  of  higher 
order  than  the  beasts  of  the  field  ?  An  interest- 
ing question  is  this,  for  it  leads  us  to  consider 
the  genesis  of  the  idea  of  moral  evil  in  man. 


252 


VII 
A   WORD   OF   CAUTION 

BEFORE  we  enter  upon  this  topic  a  word 
of  caution  may  be  needed.  I  do  not 
wish  the  purpose  of  the  foregoing  ques- 
tions to  be  misunderstood.  The  serial  nature 
of  human  thinking  and  speaking  makes  it  im- 
possible to  express  one's  thought  on  any  great 
subject  in  a  solid  block ;  one  must  needs  give  it 
forth  in  consecutive  fragments,  so  that  parts  of 
it  run  the  risk  of  being  lost  upon  the  reader  or 
hearer,  while  other  parts  are  made  to  assume 
undue  proportions.  Moreover,  there  are  many 
minds  that  habitually  catch  at  the  fragments 
of  a  thought,  and  never  seize  it  in  the  block  ; 
and  in  such  manner  do  strange  misconceptions 
arise.  I  never  could  have  dreamed,  until  taught 
by  droll  experience,  that  the  foregoing  allusions 
to  the  garden  of  Eden  could  be  understood 
as  a  glorification  of  sin,  and  an  invitation  to 
my  fellow-men  to  come  forth  with  me  and  be 
wicked  !  But  even  so  it  was,  on  one  occasion 
when  I  was  trying,  somewhat  more  scantily 
than  here,  to  state  the  present  case.  In  the 
midst  of  my  endeavour  to  justify  the  grand 
253 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

spirit  of  faith  which  our  fathers  showed  when 
from  abysmal  depths  of  affliction  they  never 
failed  to  cry  that  God  doeth  all  things  well,  I 
was  suddenly  interrupted  with  queries  as  to  just 
what  percentage  of  sin  and  crime  I  regarded  as 
needful  for  the  moral  equilibrium  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  how  much  did  I  propose  to  commit  my- 
self, how  much  would  I  advise  people  in  gen- 
eral to  commit,  and  just  where  would  I  have 
them  stop  !  Others  deemed  it  necessary  to  re- 
mind me  that  there  is  already  too  much  suffer- 
ing in  the  world,  and  we  ought  not  to  seek  to 
increase  it;  that  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong  is  of  great  practical  importance  ; 
and  that  if  we  try  to  treat  evil  as  good  we  shall 
make  good  no  better  than  evil. 

When  one  has  sufficiently  recovered  one's 
gravity,  it  is  permissible  to  reply  to  such  criti- 
cisms that  the  sharp  antithesis  between  good 
and  evil  is  essential  to  every  step  of  my  ar- 
gument, which  would  entirely  collapse  if  the 
antagonism  were  for  one  moment  disregarded. 
The  quantity  of  suffering  in  the  world  is  un- 
questionably so  great  as  to  prompt  us  to  do  all 
in  our  power  to  diminish  it ;  such  we  shall 
presently  see  must  be  the  case  in  a  world  that 
proceeds  through  stages  of  evolution.  When 
one  reverently  assumes  that  it  was  through  some 
all-wise  and  holy  purpose  that  sin  was  permitted 
to  come  into  the  world,  it  ought  to  be  quite 
254 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

superfluous  to  add  that  the  fulfilment  of  any 
such  purpose  demands  that  sin  be  not  cherished, 
but  suppressed.  If  one  seeks,  as  a  philosopher, 
to  explain  and  justify  God's  wholesale  use  of 
death  in  the  general  economy  of  the  universe, 
is  one  forsooth  to  be  charged  with  praising 
murder  as  a  fine  art  and  with  seeking  to  found 
a  society  of  Thugs  ? 


^5S 


VIII 
THE   HERMIT   AND   THE   ANGEL 

THE  simple-hearted  monks  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  understood,  in  their  own  quaint 
way,  that  God's  methods  of  governing 
this  universe  are  not  always  fit  to  be  imitated  by 
his  finite  creatures.  In  one  of  the  old  stories 
that  furnished  entertainment  and  instruction  for 
the  cloister  it  is  said  that  a  hermit  and  an  angel 
once  journeyed  together.  The  angel  was  in 
human  form  and  garb,  but  had  told  his  com- 
panion the  secret  of  his  exalted  rank  and  nature. 
Coming  at  nightfall  to  a  humble  house  by  the 
wayside,  the  two  travellers  craved  shelter  for  the 
love  of  God.  A  dainty  supper  and  a  soft,  warm 
bed  were  given  them,  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
night  the  angel  arose  and  strangled  the  kind 
host's  infant  son,  who  was  quietly  sleeping  in 
his  cradle.  The  good  hermit  was  paralyzed  with 
amazement  and  horror,  but  dared  not  speak  a 
word.  The  next  night  the  two  comrades  were 
entertained  at  a  fine  mansion  in  the  city,  where 
the  angel  stole  the  superb  golden  cup  from 
which  his  host  had  quaffed  wine  at  dinner.   Next 

256 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

day,  while  crossing  the  bridge  over  a  deep 
and  rapid  stream,  a  pilgrim  met  the  travellers. 
"  Canst  thou  show  us,  good  father,"  said  the 
angel,  "  the  way  to  the  next  town  ?  "  As  the 
pilgrim  turned  to  point  it  out,  this  terrible  being 
caught  him  by  the  shoulder  and  flung  him  into 
the  river  to  drown.  "  Verily,"  thought  the  poor 
hermit,  "  it  is  a  devil  that  I  have  here  with  me, 
and  all  his  works  are  evil ; "  but  fear  held  his 
tongue,  and  the  twain  fared  on  their  way  till  the 
sun  had  set  and  snow  began  to  fall,  and  the 
howling  of  wolves  was  heard  in  the  forest  hard 
by.  Presently  the  bright  light  coming  from  a 
cheerful  window  gave  hope  of  a  welcome  refuge ; 
but  the  surly  master  of  the  house  turned  the 
travellers  away  from  his  door  with  curses  and 
foul  gibes.  "  Yonder  is  my  pigsty  for  dirty 
vagrants  like  you."  So  they  passed  that  night 
among  the  swine ;  and  in  the  morning  the 
angel  went  to  the  house  and  thanked  the  master 
for  his  hospitality,  and  gave  him  for  a  keepsake 
(thrifty  angel !)  the  stolen  goblet.  Then  did  the 
hermit's  wrath  and  disgust  overcome  his  fears, 
and  he  loudly  upbraided  his  companion.  "  Get 
thee  gone,  wretched  spirit  !  "  he  cried.  "  I  will 
have  no  more  of  thee.  Thou  pretendest  to  be 
a  messenger  from  heaven,  yet  thou  requitest 
good  with  evil,  and  evil  with  good  !  "  Then  did 
the  angel  look  upon  him  with  infinite  compas- 


257 


STUDIES  iN  RELIGION 

sion  in  his  eyes.  "  Listen,"  said  he,  "  short- 
sighted mortal.  The  birth  of  that  infant  son 
had  made  the  father  covetous,  breaking  God's 
commandments  in  order  to  heap  up  treasures 
which  the  boy,  if  he  had  Hved,  would  have 
wasted  in  idle  debauchery.  By  my  act,  which 
seemed  so  cruel,  I  saved  both  parent  and  child. 
The  owner  of  the  goblet  had  once  been  abste- 
mious, but  was  fast  becoming  a  sot;  the  loss  of 
his  cup  has  set  him  to  thinking,  and  he  will 
mend  his  ways.  The  poor  pilgrim,  unknown  to 
himself,  was  about  to  commit  a  mortal  sin,  when 
I  interfered  and  sent  his  unsullied  soul  to  hea- 
ven. As  for  the  wretch  who  drove  God's  chil- 
dren from  his  door,  he  is,  indeed,  pleased  for 
the  moment  with  the  bauble  I  left  in  his  hands  ; 
but  hereafter  he  will  burn  in  hell."  So  spoke 
the  angel  ;  and  when  he  had  heard  these  words 
the  hermit  bowed  his  venerable  head  and  mur- 
mured, "  Forgive  me,  Lord,  that  in  my  igno- 
rance I  misjudged  thee." 

I  suspect  that,  with  all  our  boasted  science, 
there  is  still  much  wisdom  for  us  in  the  humble 
childlike  piety  of  the  Gesta  Romanorum.  To 
say  that  the  ways  of  Providence  are  inscrutable 
is  still  something  more  than  an  idle  platitude, 
and  there  still  is  room  for  the  belief  that,  could 
we  raise  the  veil  that  enshrouds  eternal  truth, 
we  should  see  that  behind  nature's  crudest  works 


258 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

there  are  secret  springs  of  divinest  tenderness 
and  love.  In  this  trustful  mood  we  may  now 
return  to  the  question  as  to  the  genesis  of  the 
idea  of  moral  evil,  and  its  close  connection  with 
man's  rise  from  a  state  of  primeval  innocence. 


259 


IX 


MAN'S  RISE  FROM  THE  INNO- 
CENCE OF  BRUTEHOOD 

WE  have  first  to  note  that  in  various 
ways  the  action  of  natural  selection 
has  been  profoundly  modified  in  the 
course  of  the  development  of  mankind  from  a 
race  of  inferior  creatures.  One  of  the  chief  fac- 
tors in  the  production  of  man  was  the  change 
that  occurred  in  the  direction  of  the  working  of 
natural  selection,  whereby  in  the  line  of  man's 
direct  ancestry  the  variations  in  intelligence  came 
to  be  seized  upon,  cherished,  and  enhanced,  to 
the  comparative  neglect  of  variations  in  bodily 
structure.  The  physical  differences  between 
man  and  ape  are  less  important  than  the  phy- 
sical differences  between  African  and  South 
American  apes.  The  latter  belong  to  different 
zoological  famihes,  but  the  former  do  not. 
Zoologically,  man  is  simply  one  genus  in  the 
old-world  family  of  apes.  Psychologically,  he 
has  travelled  so  far  from  apes  that  the  distance 
is  scarcely  measurable.  This  transcendent  con- 
trast is  primarily  due  to  the  change  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  working  of  natural  selection. 
260 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

The  consequences  of  this  change  were  numerous 
and  far-reaching.  One  consequence  was  that 
gradual  lengthening  of  the  plastic  period  of  in- 
fancy which  enabled  man  to  become  a  progres- 
sive creature,  and  organized  the  primeval  semi- 
human  horde  into  definite  family  groups.  I  have 
elsewhere  expounded  this  point,  and  it  is  known 
as  my  own  especial  contribution  to  the  theory 
of  evolution. 

Another  associated  consequence,  which  here 
more  closely  concerns  us,  was  the  partial  stop- 
page of  the  process  of  natural  selection  in  rem- 
edying unfitness.  A  quotation  from  Herbert 
Spencer  will  help  us  to  understand  this  partial 
stoppage  :  "  As  fast  as  the  faculties  are  multi- 
plied, so  fast  does  it  become  possible  for  the 
several  members  of  a  species  to  have  various 
kinds  of  superiorities  over  one  another.  While 
one  saves  its  life  by  higher  speed,  another  does 
the  like  by  clearer  vision,  another  by  keener 
scent,  another  by  quicker  hearing,  another  by 
greater  strength,  another  by  unusual  power  of 
enduring  cold  or  hunger,  another  by  special 
sagacity,  another  by  special  timidity,  another 
by  special  courage.  .  .  .  Now  .  .  .  each  of  these 
attributes,  giving  its  possessor  an  extra  chance 
of  life,  is  likely  to  be  transmitted  to  posterity. 
But "  it  is  not  nearly  so  likely  to  be  increased 
by  natural  selection.  For  "  if  those  members 
of  the  species  which  have  but  ordinary"  or 
261 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

even  deficient  shares  of  some  valuable  attribute 
"  nevertheless  survive  by  virtue  of  other  supe- 
riorities which  they  severally  possess,  then  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  how  this  particular  attribute  can 
be  "  enhanced  in  subsequent  generations  by  nat- 
ural selection.^ 

These  considerations  apply  especially  to  the 
human  race  with  its  multitudinous  capacities, 
and  I  can  better  explain  the  case  by  a  crude  and 
imperfect  illustration  than  by  a  detailed  and 
elaborate  statement.  If  an  individual  antelope 
falls  below  the  average  of  the  herd  in  speed,  he 
is  sure  to  become  food  for  lions,  and  thus  the 
high  average  of  speed  in  the  herd  is  maintained 
by  natural  selection.  But  if  an  individual  man 
becomes  a  drunkard,  though  his  capabilities  be 
ever  so  much  curtailed  by  this  vice,  yet  the  va- 
riety of  human  faculty  furnishes  so  many  hooks 
with  which  to  keep  one's  hold  upon  life  that 
he  may  sin  long  and  flagrantly  without  perish- 
ing ;  and  if  the  drunkard  survives,  the  action  of 
natural  selection  in  weeding  out  drunkenness  is 
checked.  There  is  thus  a  wide  interval  between 
the  highest  and  lowest  degrees  of  completeness 
in  living  that  are  compatible  with  maintenance 
of  life.  Mankind  has  so  many  other  qualities 
beside  the  bad  ones,  which  enable  it  to  subsist 
and   achieve  progress  in   spite  of  them,  that 

1  Biology y  \.  454. 


262 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

natural  selection  —  which  always  works  through 
death  —  cannot  come  into  play. 

Now  it  is  because  of  this  interval  between 
the  highest  and  lowest  degrees  of  completeness 
of  living  that  are  compatible  with  the  mere 
maintenance  of  life,  that  men  can  be  distin- 
guished as  morally  bad  or  morally  good.  In  in- 
ferior animals,  where  there  is  no  such  interval, 
there  is  no  developed  morality  or  conscience, 
though  in  a  few  of  the  higher  ones  there  are  the 
germs  of  these  things.  Morality  comes  upon 
the  scene  when  there  is  an  alternative  offered  of 
leading  better  lives  or  worse  lives.  And  just  as 
up  to  this  point  the  actions  of  the  forefathers  of 
mankind  have  been  determined  by  the  pursuit 
of  pleasure  and  avoidance  of  pain,  so  now  they 
begin  to  be  practically  determined  by  the  pur- 
suit of  goodness  and  avoidance  of  evil.  This 
rise  from  a  bestial  to  a  moral  plane  of  existence 
involves  the  acquirement  of  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil.  Conscience  is  generated  to  play 
a  part  analogous  to  that  played  by  the  sense  of 
pain  in  the  lower  stages  of  life,  and  to  keep  us 
from  wrong-doing.  To  the  mere  love  of  life, 
which  is  the  conservative  force  that  keeps  the 
whole  animal  world  in  existence,  there  now 
comes  gradually  to  be  superadded  the  feeling 
of  religious  aspiration,  which  is  nothing  more 
nor  less   than  the    yearning  after  the    highest 

263 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

possible  completeness  of  spiritual  life.  In  the 
lower  stages  of  human  development  this  reli- 
gious aspiration  has  as  yet  but  an  embryonic  ex- 
istence, and  moral  obligations  are  still  but  im- 
perfectly recognized.  It  is  only  after  long  ages 
of  social  discipline,  fraught  with  cruel  afflictions 
and  grinding  misery,  that  the  moral  law  be- 
comes dominant  and  religious  aspiration  intense 
and  abiding  in  the  soul.  When  such  a  stage  is 
reached,  we  have  at  last  in  man  a  creature  dif- 
ferent in  kind  from  his  predecessors,  and  fit  for 
an  everlasting  life  of  progress,  for  a  closer  and 
closer  communion  with  God  in  beatitude  that 
shall  endure. 


264 


X 

THE   RELATIVITY  OF   EVIL 

1^  S  we  survey  the  course  of  this  wonderful 
A-J^  evolution,  it  begins  to  become  manifest 
•*-  "^  that  moral  evil  is  simply  the  character- 
istic of  the  lower  state  of  living  as  looked  at 
from  the  higher  state.  Its  existence  is  purely 
relative,  yet  it  is  profoundly  real,  and  in  a  pro- 
cess of  perpetual  spiritual  evolution  its  presence 
in  some  hideous  form  throughout  a  long  series 
of  upward  stages  is  indispensable.  Its  absence 
would  mean  stagnation,  quiescence,  unprogres- 
siveness.  For  the  moment  we  exercise  conscious 
choice  between  one  course  of  action  and  another, 
we  recognize  the  difference  between  better  and 
worse,  we  foreshadow  the  whole  grand  contrast 
between  good  and  bad.  In  the  process  of  spiri- 
tual evolution,  therefore,  evil  must  needs  be  pre- 
sent. But  the  nature  of  evolution  also  requires 
that  it  should  be  evanescent.  In  the  higher 
stages  that  which  is  worse  than  the  best  need 
no  longer  be  positively  bad.  After  the  nature 
of  that  which  the  upward-striving  soul  abhors 
has  been  forever  impressed  upon  it,  amid  the 


265 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

long  vicissitudes  of  its  pilgrimage  through  the 
dark  realms  of  sin  and  expiation,  it  is  at  length 
equipped  for  its  final  sojourn 

**In  the  blest  kingdoms  meek  of  joy  and  love." 

From  the  general  analogies  furnished  in  the 
process  of  evolution,  we  are  entitled  to  hope 
that,  as  it  approaches  its  goal  and  man  comes 
nearer  to  God,  the  fact  of  evil  will  lapse  into  a 
mere  memory,  in  which  the  shadowed  past  shall 
serve  as  a  background  for  the  realized  glory  of 
the  present. 

Thus  we  have  arrived  at  the  goal  of  my  argu- 
ment. We  can  at  least  begin  to  realize  distinctly 
that  unless  our  eyes  had  been  opened  at  some 
time,  so  that  we  might  come  to  know  the  good  and 
the  evil,  we  should  never  have  become  fashioned 
in  God's  image.  We  should  have  been  the  deni- 
zens of  a  world  of  puppets,  where  neither  mo- 
rality nor  religion  could  have  found  place  or 
meaning.  The  mystery  of  evil  remains  a  mys- 
tery still,  but  it  is  no  longer  a  harsh  dissonance 
such  as  greeted  the  poet's  ear  when  the  doors 
of  hell  were  thrown  open ;  for  we  see  that  this 
mystery  belongs  among  the  profound  harmonies 
in  God's  creation.  This  reflection  may  have  in 
it  something  that  is  consoling  as  we  look  forth 
upon  the  ills  of  the  world.  Many  are  the  pains 
of  life,  and  the  struggle  with  wickedness  is  hard ; 


266 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

its  course  is  marked  with  sorrow  and  tears.  But 
assuredly  its  deep  impress  upon  the  human  soul 
is  the  indispensable  background  against  which 
shall  be  set  hereafter  the  eternal  joys  of  heaven  I 


THE  COSMIC  ROOTS  OF  LOVE 
AND  SELF-SACRIFICE 


O  abbondante  grazia,  ond*  5o  prcsuna 
Ficcar  lo  viso  per  la  luce  etema 
Tanto,  che  la  veduta  vi  consunsi ! 

Nel  suo  profondo  vidi  che  s'  interna. 
Legato  con  amore  in  un  volume, 
Cio  che  per  V  universe  si  squaderna. 

Danti,  Paradise,  xxxm.  Si. 


THE  SUMMER  FIELD,  AND  WHAT 
IT  TELLS  US 

THERE  are  few  sights  in  Nature  more 
restful  to  the  soul  than  a  daisied  field 
in  June.  Whether  it  be  at  the  dewy 
hour  of  sunrise,  with  blithe  matin  songs  still 
echoing  among  the  tree-tops,  or  while  the  luxu- 
riant splendour  of  noontide  fills  the  delicate 
tints  of  the  early  foliage  with  a  pure  glory  of 
light,  or  in  that  more  pensive  time  when  long 
shadows  are  thrown  eastward  and  the  fresh 
breath  of  the  sea  is  felt,  or  even  under  the 
solemn  mantle  of  darkness,  when  all  forms  have 
faded  from  sight  and  the  night  air  is  musical 
with  the  murmurs  of  innumerable  insects,  amid 
all  the  varying  moods  through  which  the  daily 
cycle  runs,  the  abiding  sense  is  of  unalloyed 
happiness,  the  profound  tranquillity  of  mind 
and  heart  that  nothing  ever  brings  save  the  con- 
templation of  perfect  beauty.  One's  thought 
is  carried  back  for  the  moment  to  that  morning 
of  the  world  when  God  looked  upon  his  work 
and  saw  that  it  was  good.  If  in  the  infinite  and 
eternal  Creative  Energy  one  might  imagine 
271 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

some  inherent  impulse  perpetually  urging  to- 
ward fresh  creation,  what  could  it  be  more  likely 
to  be  than  the  divine  contentment  in  giving 
objective  existence  to  the  boundless  and  subtle 
harmonies  whereof  our  world  is  made  ?  That 
it  is  a  world  of  perfect  harmony  and  unsullied 
beauty,  who  can  doubt  as  he  strolls  through 
this  summer  field  ?  As  our  thought  plays  lightly 
with  its  sights  and  sounds,  there  is  nothing  but 
gladness  in  the  laugh  of  the  bobolink;  the 
thrush's  tender  note  tells  only  of  the  sweet 
domestic  companionship  of  the  nest ;  creeping 
and  winged  things  emerging  from  their  grubs 
fill  us  with  the  sense  of  abounding  life ;  and 
the  myriad  buttercups,  hallowed  with  vague 
memories  of  June  days  in  childhood,  lose  none 
of  their  charm  in  reminding  us  of  the  profound 
sympathy  and  mutual  dependence  in  which  the 
worlds  of  flowers  and  insects  have  grown  up. 
The  blades  of  waving  grass,  the  fluttering  leaves 
upon  the  lilac  bush,  appeal  to  us  with  rare  fas- 
cination ;  for  the  green  stuff  that  fills  their  cel- 
lular tissues,  and  the  tissues  of  all  green  things 
that  grow,  is  the  world's  great  inimitable 
worker  of  wonders ;  its  marvellous  alchemy 
takes  dead  matter  and  breathes  into  it  the 
breath  of  life.  But  for  that  magician  chlorophyll, 
conjuring  with  sunbeams,  such  things  as  animal 
life  and  conscious  intelligence  would  be  impos- 
sible ;  there  would  be  no  problems  of  creation, 
272 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

nor  philosopher  to  speculate  upon  them.  Thus 
the  delight  that  sense  impression  gives,  as  we 
wander  among  buttercups  and  daisies,  becomes 
deepened  into  gratitude  and  veneration,  till  we 
quite  understand  how  the  rejuvenescence  of 
Nature  should  in  all  ages  have  aroused  men  to 
acts  of  worship,  and  should  call  forth  from 
modern  masters  of  music,  the  most  religious  of 
the  arts  of  expression,  outbursts  of  sublimest 
song. 

And  yet  we  need  but  come  a  little  closer  to 
the  facts  to  find  them  apparently  telling  us  a 
very  different  story.  The  moment  we  penetrate 
below  the  superficial  aspect  of  things  the  scene 
is  changed.  In  the  folklore  of  Ireland  there  is 
a  widespread  belief  in  a  fairyland  of  eternal  hope 
and  brightness  and  youth  situated  a  little  way 
below  the  roots  of  the  grass.  From  that  land 
of  Tir  nan  Og,  as  the  peasants  call  it,  the  secret 
springs  of  life  shoot  forth  their  scions  in  this 
visible  world,  and  thither  a  few  favoured  mor- 
tals have  now  and  then  found  their  way.  It  is 
into  no  blest  country  of  Tir  nan  Og  that  our 
stern  science  leads  us,  but  into  a  scene  of  ugli- 
ness and  hatred,  strife  and  massacre.  Macaulay 
tells  of  the  battlefield  of  Neerwinden,  that  the 
next  summer  after  that  frightful  slaughter  the 
whole  countryside  was  densely  covered  with 
scarlet  poppies,  which  people  beheld  with  awe 
as  a  token  of  wrath  in  heaven  over  the  deeds 
273 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

wrought  on  earth  by  human  passions.  Any 
summer  field,  though  mantled  in  softest  green, 
is  the  scene  of  butchery  as  wholesale  as  that  of 
Neerwinden  and  far  more  ruthless.  The  life  of 
its  countless  tiny  denizens  is  one  of  unceasing 
toil,  of  crowding  and  jostling,  where  the  weaker 
fall  unpitied  by  the  way,  of  starvation  from 
hunger  and  cold,  of  robbery  utterly  shameless 
and  murder  utterly  cruel.  That  green  sward  in 
taking  possession  of  its  territory  has  extermi- 
nated scores  of  flowering  plants  of  the  sort  that 
human  economics  and  aesthetics  stigmatize  as 
weeds  ;  nor  do  the  blades  of  the  victorious 
army  dwell  side  by  side  in  amity,  but  in  their 
eagerness  to  dally  with  the  sunbeams  thrust 
aside  and  supplant  one  another  without  the 
smallest  compunction.  Of  the  crawling  insects 
and  those  that  hum  through  the  air,  with  the 
quaint  snail,  the  burrowing  worm,  the  bloated 
toad,  scarce  one  in  a  hundred  but  succumbs  to 
the  buffets  of  adverse  fortune  before  it  has 
achieved  maturity  and  left  offspring  to  replace 
it.  The  early  bird,  who  went  forth  in  quest  of 
the  worm,  was  lucky  if  at  the  close  of  a  day  as 
full  of  strife  and  peril  as  ever  knight-errant  en- 
countered, he  did  not  himself  serve  as  a  meal 
for  some  giant  foe  in  the  gloaming.  When  we 
think  of  the  hawk's  talons  buried  in  the  breast 
of  the  wren,  while  the  relentless  beak  tears  the 
little  wings  from  the  quivering,  bleeding  body, 
274 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

our  mood  toward  Nature  is  changed,  and  we 
feel  like  recoiling  from  a  world  in  which  such 
black  injustice,  such  savage  disregard  for  others, 
is  part  of  the  general  scheme. 


275 


II 

SEEMING  WASTEFULNESS  OF  THE 
COSMIC   PROCESS 

BUT  as  we  look  still  further  into  the  mat- 
I  ter,  our  mood  is  changed  once  more. 
We  find  that  this  hideous  hatred  and 
strife,  this  wholesale  famine  and  death,  furnish 
the  indispensable  conditions  for  the  evolution 
of  higher  and  higher  types  of  life.  Nay  more, 
but  for  the  pitiless  destruction  of  all  individuals 
that  fall  short  of  a  certain  degree  of  fitness  to 
the  circumstances  of  life  into  which  they  are 
born,  the  type  would  inevitably  degenerate,  the 
life  would  become  lower  and  meaner  in  kind. 
Increase  in  richness,  variety,  complexity  of  life  is 
gained  only  by  the  selection  of  variations  above 
or  beyond  a  certain  mean,  and  the  prompt  ex- 
ecution of  a  death  sentence  upon  all  the  rest. 
The  principle  of  natural  selection  is  in  one  re- 
spect intensely  Calvinistic  :  it  elects  the  one  and 
damns  the  ninety  and  nine.  In  these  processes 
of  Nature  there  is  nothing  that  savours  of  com- 
munistic equality ;  but  "  to  him  that  hath  shall 
be  given,  and  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be 
taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath."  Through 
276 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

this  selection  of  a  favoured  few,  a  higher  type 
of  Hfe  —  or  at  all  events  a  type  in  which  there 
is  more  life  —  is  attained  in  many  cases,  but  not 
always.  Evolution  and  progress  are  not  synon- 
ymous terms.  The  survival  of  the  fittest  is  not 
always  a  survival  of  the  best  or  of  the  most  highly 
organized.  The  environment  is  sometimes  such 
that  increase  of  fitness  means  degeneration  of 
type,  and  the  animal  and  vegetable  worlds  show 
many  instances  of  degeneration.  One  brilliant 
instance  is  that  which  has  preserved  the  clue  to 
the  remote  ancestry  of  the  vertebrate  type.  The 
molluscoid  ascidian,  rooted  polyp-like  on  the 
sea  beach  in  shallow  water,  has  an  embryonic 
history  which  shows  that  its  ancestors  had  once 
seen  better  days,  when  they  darted  to  and  fro, 
fishlike,  through  the  waves,  with  the  prophecy 
of  a  vertebrate  skeleton  within  them.  This  is  a 
case  of  marked  degeneration.  More  often  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  simply  preserves  the  type 
unchanged  through  long  periods  of  time.  But 
now  and  then  under  favourable  circumstances 
it  raises  the  type.  At  all  events,  whenever  the 
type  is  raised,  it  is  through  survival  of  the  fittest, 
implying  destruction  of  all  save  the  fittest. 

This  last  statement  is  probably  true  of  all 
plants  and  of  all  animals  except  that  as  applied 
to  the  human  race  it  needs  some  transcendently 
important  qualifications  which  students  of  evo- 
lution are  very  apt  to  neglect.  I  shall  by  and 
277 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

by  point  out  these  qualifications.  At  present  we 
may  note  that  the  development  of  civilization, 
on  its  political  side,  has  been  a  stupendous 
struggle  for  life,  wherein  the  possession  of  cer- 
tain physical  and  mental  attributes  has  enabled 
some  tribes  or  nations  to  prevail  over  others, 
and  to  subject  or  exterminate  them.  On  its  in- 
dustrial side  the  struggle  has  been  no  less  fierce ; 
the  evolution  of  higher  efficiency  through  mer- 
ciless competition  is  a  matter  of  common  know- 
ledge. Alike  in  the  occupations  of  war  and  in 
those  of  peace,  superior  capacity  has  thriven 
upon  victories  in  which  small  heed  has  been  paid 
to  the  wishes  or  the  welfare  of  the  vanquished. 
In  human  history  perhaps  no  relation  has  been 
more  persistently  repeated  than  that  of  the  hawk 
and  the  wren.  The  aggression  has  usually  been 
defended  as  in  the  interests  of  higher  civiliza- 
tion, and  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  defence 
has  been  sustained  by  the  facts.  It  has  indeed 
very  commonly  been  true  that  the  survival  of 
the  strongest  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 

Such  considerations  affect  our  mood  toward 
Nature  in  a  way  that  is  somewhat  bewildering. 
On  the  one  hand,  as  we  recognize  in  the  univer- 
sal strife  and  slaughter  a  stern  discipline  through 
which  the  standard  of  animate  existence  is  raised 
and  the  life  of  creatures  variously  enriched,  we 
become  to  some  extent  reconciled  to  the  facts. 
Assuming,  as  we  all  do,  that  the  attainmen't  of 
278 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

higher  life  is  in  itself  desirable,  our  minds  can- 
not remain  utterly  inhospitable  toward  things, 
however  odious  in  themselves,  that  help  toward 
the  desirable  end.  Since  we  cannot  rid  the  world 
of  them,  we  acquiesce  in  their  existence  as  part 
of  the  machinery  of  God's  providence,  the  in- 
tricacies of  which  our  finite  minds  cannot  hope 
to  unravel.  On  the  other  hand,  a  thought  is 
likely  to  arise  which  in  days  gone  by  we  should 
have  striven  to  suppress  as  too  impious  for 
utterance ;  but  it  is  wiser  to  let  such  thoughts 
find  full  expression,  for  only  thus  can  we  be 
sure  of  understanding  the  kind  of  problem  we 
are  trying  to  solve.  Is  not,  then,  this  method 
of  Nature,  which  achieves  progress  only  through 
misery  and  death,  an  exceedingly  brutal  and 
clumsy  method  ?  Life,  one  would  think,  must 
be  dear  to  the  everlasting  Giver  of  life,  yet  how 
cheap  it  seems  to  be  held  in  the  general  scheme 
of  things  !  In  order  that  some  race  of  moths 
may  attain  a  certain  fantastic  contour  and  mark- 
ing of  their  wings,  untold  thousands  of  moths 
are  doomed  to  perish  prematurely.  Instead  of 
making  the  desirable  object  once  for  all,  the 
method  of  Nature  is  to  make  something  else  and 
reject  it,  and  so  on  through  countless  ages,  till 
by  slow  approximations  the  creative  thought  is 
realized.  Nature  is  often  called  thrifty,  yet  could 
anything  be  more  prodigal  or  more  cynical  than 
the  waste  of  individual  lives  ?  Does  it  not  re- 
279 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

mind  one  of  Charles  Lamb's  famous  story  of 
the  Chinaman  whose  house  accidentally  burned 
down  and  roasted  a  pig,  whereupon  the  dainty 
meat  was  tasted  and  its  fame  spread  abroad  until 
epicures  all  over  China  were  to  be  seen  carrying 
home  pigs  and  forthwith  setting  fire  to  their 
houses  ?  We  need  but  add  that  the  custom  thus 
established  lasted  for  centuries,  during  which 
every  dinner  of  pig  involved  the  sacrifice  of  a 
hontestead,  and  we  seem  to  have  a  close  parody 
upon  the  wastefulness  of  Nature,  or  of  what  is 
otherwise  called  in  these  days  the  Cosmic  Pro- 
cess. Upon  such  a  view  as  this  the  Cosmic 
Process  appears  in  a  high  degree  unintelligent, 
not  to  say  immoral. 


280 


Ill 

CALIBAN'S  PHILOSOPHY 

POLYTHEISM  easily  found  a  place  for 
such  views  as  these,  inasmuch  as  it 
could  explain  the  unseemly  aspects  of 
Nature  offhand  by  a  reference  to  malevolent 
deities.  With  Browning's  Caliban,  in  his  medi- 
tations upon  Setebos,  that  god  whom  he  con- 
ceived in  his  own  image,  the  recklessness  of 
Nature  is  mockery  engendered  half  in  spite, 
half  in  mere  wantonness.    Setebos,  he  says, 

*♦  is  strong  and  Lord. 
'Am  strong  myself  compared  to  yonder  crabs 

That  march  now  from  the  mountain  to  the  sea  ; 
*Let  twenty  pass,  and  stone  the  twenty-first. 

Loving  not,  hating  not,  just  choosing  so. 
*Say,  the  first  straggler  that  boasts  purple  spots 

Shall  join  the  file,  one  pincer  twisted  off  ; 
'Say,  this  bruised  fellow  shall  receive  a  worm. 

And  two  worms  he  whose  nippers  end  in  red ; 

As  it  likes  me  each  time,  I  do  :   So  He." 

Such  is  the  kind  of  philosophy  that  commends 
itself  to  the  beastly  Caliban,  as  he  sprawls  in 
the  mire  with  small  eft  things  creeping  down 
his  back.  His  half-fledged  mind  can  conceive 
no  higher  principle  of  action  —  nothing  more 
a8i 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

artistic,  nothing  more  masterful  —  than  wanton 
mockery,  and  naturally  he  attributes  it  to  his 
God ;  it  is  for  him  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
that  little  fragment  of  the  Cosmic  Process  with 
which  he  comes  into  contact. 


•282 


IV 


CAN  IT  BE  THAT  THE  COSMIC 
PROCESS  HAS  NO  RELATION  TO 
MORAL  ENDS? 

BUT  as  long  as  we  confine  our  attention 
to  the  universal  struggle  for  life  and  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  without  certain 
qualifications  presently  to  be  mentioned,  it  is 
difficult  for  the  most  profound  intelligence  to 
arrive  at  conclusions  much  more  satisfactory 
than  Caliban's.  If  the  spirit  shown  in  Nature's 
works  as  thus  contemplated  is  not  one  of  wan- 
ton mockery,  it  seems  at  any  rate  to  be  a  spirit 
of  stolid  indifference.  It  indicates  a  Blind  Force 
rather  than  a  Beneficent  Wisdom  at  the  source 
of  things.  It  is  in  some  such  mood  as  this  that 
Huxley  tells  us,  in  his  famous  address  delivered 
at  Oxford,  in  1893,  that  there  is  no  sanction 
for  morality  in  the  Cosmic  Process.  "  Men  in 
society,"  he  says,  "  are  undoubtedly  subject  to 
the  cosmic  process.  As  among  other  animals, 
multiplication  goes  on  without  cessation  and 
involves  severe  competition  for  the  means  of 
support.  The  struggle  for  existence  tends  to 
eliminate  those  less  fitted  to  adapt  themselves 
283 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

to  the  circumstances  of  their  existence.  The 
strongest,  the  most  self-assertive,  tend  to  tread 
down  the  wealcer.  .  .  .  Social  progress  means 
a  checking  of  the  cosmic  process  at  every  step 
and  the  substitution  for  it  of  another,  which 
may  be  called  the  ethical  process ;  the  end  of 
which  is  not  the  survival  of  those  who  may 
happen  to  be  the  fittest,  in  respect  of  the  whole 
of  the  conditions  which  exist,  but  of  those  who 
are  ethically  the  best."  Again,  says  Huxley,  "  let 
us  understand,  once  for  all,  that  the  ethical  pro- 
gress of  society  depends,  not  on  imitating  the 
cosmic  process,  still  less  in  running  away  from 
it,  but  in  combating  it."  And  again  he  tells  us 
that  while  the  moral  sentiments  have  undoubt- 
edly been  evolved,  yet  since  "the  immoral  sen- 
timents have  no  less  been  evolved,  there  is  so 
far  as  much  natural  sanction  for  the  one  as  for 
the  other."  And  yet  again,  "  the  cosmic  pro- 
cess has  no  sort  of  relation  to  moral  ends." 

When  these  statements  were  first  made  they 
were  received  with  surprise,  and  they  have  since 
called  forth  much  comment,  for  they  sound  like 
a  retreat  from  the  position  which  an  evolution- 
ist is  expected  to  hold.  They  distinctly  assert 
a  breach  of  continuity  between  evolution  in 
general  and  the  evolution  of  Man  in  particular; 
and  thus  they  have  carried  joy  to  the  hearts  of 
sundry  theologians,  of  the  sort  that  like  to  re- 
gard Man  as  an  infringer  upon  Nature.  If  there 
284 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

is  no  natural  sanction  for  morality,  then  the 
sanction  must  be  supernatural,  and  forthwith 
such  theologians  greet  Huxley  as  an  ally  ! 

They  are  mistaken,  however.  Huxley  does 
not  really  mean  to  assert  any  such  breach  of 
continuity  as  is  here  suggested.  In  a  footnote 
to  his  printed  address  he  makes  a  qualification 
which  really  cancels  the  group  of  statements 
I  have  quoted.  "  Of  course,"  says  Huxley, 
"  strictly  speaking,  social  life  and  the  ethical 
process,  in  virtue  of  which  it  advances  toward 
perfection,  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  general 
process  of  evolution."  Of  course  they  are  ;  and 
of  course  the  general  process  of  evolution  is  the 
cosmic  process,  it  is  Nature's  way  of  doing 
things.  But  when  my  dear  Huxley  a  moment 
ago  was  saying  that  the  "  cosmic  process  has  no 
sort  of  relation  to  moral  ends,"  he  was  using 
the  phrase  in  a  more  restricted  sense ;  he  was 
using  it  as  equivalent  to  what  Darwin  called 
"  natural  selection,"  what  Spencer  called  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,"  which  is  only  one  part 
of  the  cosmic  process.  Now  most  assuredly 
survival  of  the  fittest,  as  such,  has  no  sort  of 
relation  to  moral  ends.  Beauty  and  ugliness, 
virtue  and  vice,  are  all  alike  to  it.  Side  by  side 
with  the  exquisite  rose  flourishes  the  hideous 
tarantula,  and  in  too  many  cases  the  villain's 
chances  of  livelihood  are  better  than  the  saint's. 
As  I  said  a  while  ago,  if  we  confine  our  atten- 
285 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

tion  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest  in  the  struggle 
for  existence,  we  are  not  likely  to  arrive  at  con- 
clusions much  more  satisfactory  than  Caliban's 

*'  As  it  likes  me  each  time,  I  do  :  So  He." 

In  such  a  universe  we  may  look  in  vain  for 
any  sanction  for  morality,  any  justification  for 
love  and  self-sacrifice  ;  we  find  no  hope  in  it,  no 
consolation ;  there  is  not  even  dignity  in  it,  no- 
thing whatever  but  resistless  all-producing  and 
all-consuming  energy. 

Such  a  universe,  however,  is  not  the  one  in 
which  we  live.  In  the  cosmic  process  of  evolu- 
tion, whereof  our  individual  lives  are  part  and 
parcel,  there  are  other  agencies  at  work  besides 
natural  selection,  and  the  story  of  the  struggle 
for  existence  is  far  from  being  the  whole  story. 
I  have  thus  far  been  merely  stating  difficulties ; 
it  is  now  time  to  point  out  the  direction  in 
which  we  are  to  look  for  a  solution  of  them.  I 
think  it  can  be  shown  that  the  principles  of 
morality  have  their  roots  in  the  deepest  foun- 
dations of  the  universe,  that  the  cosmic  process 
is  ethical  in  the  profoundest  sense,  that  in  that 
far-oflf  morning  of  the  world,  when  the  stars 
sang  together  and  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for 
joy,  the  beauty  of  self-sacrifice  and  disinterested 
love  formed  the  chief  burden  of  the  mighty 
theme. 


286 


FIRST  STAGES  IN  THE  GENESIS  OF 

MAN 

LET  us  begin  by  drawing  a  correct  though 
slight  outHne  sketch  of  what  the  cosmic 
-^  process  of  evolution  has  been.  It  is  not 
strange  that  when  biologists  speak  of  evolution 
they  should  often  or  usually  have  in  mind  simply 
the  modifications  wrought  in  plants  and  animals 
by  means  of  natural  selection.  For  it  was  by 
calling  attention  to  such  modifications  that  Dar- 
win discovered  a  true  cause  of  the  origin  of 
species  by  physiological  descent  from  allied  spe- 
cies. Thus  was  demonstrated  the  fact  of  evolu- 
tion in  its  most  important  province ;  men  of 
science  were  convinced  that  the  higher  forms 
of  life  are  derived  from  lower  forms,  and  the  old 
notion  of  special  creations  was  exploded  once 
and  forever.  This  was  a  great  scientific  achieve- 
ment, one  of  the  greatest  known  to  history,  and 
it  is  therefore  not  strange  that  language  should 
often  be  employed  as  if  Evolutionism  and  Dar- 
winism were  synonymous.  Yet  not  only  are 
there  extensive  regions  in  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution about  which  Darwin  knew  very  little,  but 
287 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

even  as  regards  the  genesis  of  species  his  theory- 
was  never  developed  in  his  own  hands  so  far  as 
to  account  satisfactorily  for  the  genesis  of  man. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  while  the  nat- 
ural selection  of  physical  variations  will  go  far 
toward  explaining  the  characteristics  of  all  the 
plants  and  all  the  beasts  in  the  world,  it  remains 
powerless  to  account  for  the  existence  of  man. 
Natural  selection  of  physical  variations  might 
go  on  for  a  dozen  eternities  without  any  other 
visible  result  than  new  forms  of  plant  and  beast 
in  endless   and  meaningless   succession.     The 
physical    variations    by  which  man    is    distin- 
guished from  apes  are  not  great.     His  physical 
relationship  with  the  ape  is  closer  than  that  be- 
tween cat  and  dog,  which  belong  to  different 
families  of  the  same  order  ;  it  is  more  hke  that 
between  cat  and  leopard,  or  between  dog  and 
fox,  different  genera  in  the  same  family.     But 
the  moment  we  consider  the  minds  of  man  and 
ape,  the  gap  between  the  two  is  immeasurable. 
Mr.  Mivart  has  truly  said  that,  with  regard  to 
their  total  value  in  nature,  the  difference  be- 
tween man  and  ape  transcends  the  difference 
between  ape  and  blade  of  grass.    I  should  be 
disposed  to  go  further  and  say,  that  while  for 
zoological  man  you  can  hardly  erect  a  distinct 
family  from  that  of  the  chimpanzee  and  orang, 
on  the  other  hand,  for  psychological  man  you 
must  erect  a  distinct  kingdom  ;  nay,  you  must 
288 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

even  dichotomize  the  universe,  putting  Man  on 
one  side  and  all  things  else  on  the  other.  How 
can  this  overwhelming  contrast  between  psychi- 
cal and  physical  difference  be  accounted  for? 
The  clue  was  furnished  by  Alfred  Russel  Wal- 
lace, the  illustrious  co-discoverer  of  natural  se- 
lection. Wallace  saw  that  along  with  the  general 
development  of  mammalian  intelligence  a  point 
must  have  been  reached  in  the  history  of  one 
of  the  primates,  when  variations  of  intelligence 
were  more  profitable  to  him  than  variations  in 
body.  From  that  time  forth  that  primate's  in- 
telligence went  on  by  slow  increments  acquir- 
ing new  capacity,  while  his  body  changed  but 
little.  When  once  he  could  strike  fire,  and  chip 
a  flint,  and  use  a  club,  and  strip  off  the  bear's 
hide  to  cover  himself,  there  was  clearly  no 
further  use  in  thickening  his  own  hide,  or 
lengthening  and  sharpening  his  claws.  Natural 
selection  is  the  keenest  capitalist  in  the  uni- 
verse ;  she  never  loses  an  instant  in  seizing  the 
most  profitable  place  for  investment,  and  her 
judgment  is  never  at  fault.  Forthwith,  for  a 
million  years  or  more  she  invested  all  her  cap- 
ital in  the  psychical  variations  of  this  favoured 
primate,  making  little  change  in  his  body  ex- 
cept so  far  as  to  aid  in  the  general  result,  until 
by  and  by  something  Hke  human  intelligence 
of  a  low  grade,  like  that  of  the  Australian  or 
the  Andaman  islander,  was  achieved.  The  gen- 
289 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

esis  of  humanity  was  by  no  means  yet  com- 
pleted, but  an  enormous  gulf  had  been  crossed. 
After  throwing  out  this  luminous  suggestion 
Mr.  Wallace  never  followed  it  up  as  it  ad- 
mitted and  deserved.  It  is  too  much  to  expect 
one  man  to  do  everything,  and  his  splendid 
studies  in  the  geographical  distribution  of  or- 
ganisms may  well  have  left  him  little  time  for 
work  in  this  direction.  Who  can  fail  to  see  that 
the  selection  of  psychical  variations,  to  the  com- 
parative neglect  of  physical  variations,  was  the 
opening  of  a  new  and  greater  act  in  the  drama 
of  creation?  Since  that  new  departure  the 
Creator's  highest  work  has  consisted  not  in 
bringing  forth  new  types  of  body,  but  in  ex- 
panding and  perfecting  the  psychical  attributes 
of  the  one  creature  in  whose  life  those  attributes 
have  begun  to  acquire  predominance.  Along 
this  human  line  of  ascent  there  is  no  occasion 
for  any  further  genesis  of  species,  all  future 
progress  must  continue  to  be  not  zoological, 
but  psychological,  organic  evolution  gives  place 
to  civilization.  Thus  in  the  long  series  of  or- 
ganic beings  Man  is  the  last ;  the  cosmic  process, 
having  once  evolved  this  masterpiece,  could 
thenceforth  do  nothing  better  than  to  perfect 
him. 


290 


VI 


THE     CENTRAL     FACT     IN     THE 
GENESIS   OF    MAN 

THIS  conclusion,  which  follows  irresist- 
ibly from  Wallace's  theorem,  that  in 
the  genesis  of  Humanity  natural  selec- 
tion began  to  follow  a  new  path,  already  throws 
a  light  of  promise  over  our  whole  subject,  like 
the  rosy  dawn  of  a  June  morning.  But  the  ex- 
planation of  the  genesis  of  Humanity  is  still  far 
from  complete.  If  we  compare  man  with  any 
of  the  higher  mammals,  such  as  dogs  and  horses 
and  apes,  we  are  struck  with  several  points  of 
difference :  firsts  the  greater  progressiveness  of 
man,  the  widening  of  the  interval  by  which  one 
generation  may  vary  from  its  predecessor ;  sec- 
ondly y  the  definite  grouping  in  societies  based 
on  more  or  less  permanent  family  relationships, 
instead  of  the  indefinite  grouping  in  miscellane- 
ous herds  or  packs ;  thirdly,  the  possession  of 
articulate  speech ; /o«rM/y,  the  enormous  in- 
crease in  the  duration  of  infancy,  or  the  period 
when  parental  care  is  needed.  Twenty-four 
years  ago,  in  a  course  of  lectures  given  yonder 
in  Holden  Chapel,  I  showed  that  the  circum- 
291 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

stance  last  named  is  the  fundamental  one,  and 
the  others  are  derivative.  It  is  the  prolonged 
infancy  that  has  caused  the  progressiveness  and 
the  grouping  into  definite  societies,  while  the 
development  of  language  was  a  consequence  of 
the  increasing  intelligence  and  sociality  thus 
caused.  In  the  genesis  of  Humanity  the  central 
fact  has  been  the  increased  duration  of  infancy. 
Now,  can  we  assign  for  that  increased  duration 
an  adequate  cause  ?  I  think  we  can.  The  in- 
crease of  intelligence  is  itself  such  a  cause.  A 
glance  at  the  animal  kingdom  shows  us  no  such 
thing  as  infancy  among  the  lower  orders.  It  is 
with  warm-blooded  birds  and  mammals  that  the 
phenomena  of  infancy  and  the  correlative  pa- 
rental care  really  begin. 


igi 


VII 

THE     CHIEF     CAUSE     OF     MAN'S 
LENGTHENED    INFANCY 

THE  reason  for  this  is  that  any  creature's 
ability  to  perceive  and  to  act  depends 
upon  the  registration  of  experiences  in 
his  nerve-centres.  It  is  either  individual  or 
ancestral  experience  that  is  thus  registered ;  or, 
strictly  speaking,  it  is  both.  It  is  of  the  first 
importance  that  this  point  should  be  clearly  un- 
derstood, and  therefore  a  few  words  of  elemen- 
tary explanation  will  not  be  superfluous. 

When  you  learn  to  play  the  piano,  you  grad- 
ually establish  innumerable  associations  between 
printed  groups  of  notes  and  the  corresponding 
keys  on  the  keyboard,  and  you  also  train  the 
fingers  to  execute  a  vast  number  of  rapid  and 
complicated  motions.  The  process  is  full  of 
difficulty,  and  involves  endless  repetition.  After 
some  years  perhaps  you  can  play  at  sight  and 
with  almost  automatic  ease  a  polonaise  of 
Liszt  or  a  ballad  of  Chopin.  Now  this  result  is 
possible  only  because  of  a  bodily  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  you.  Countless  molecular 
alterations  have  been  wrought  in  the  structure 
293 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

of  sundry  nerves  and  muscles,  especially  in  the 
gray  matter  of  sundry  ganglia,  or  nerve-centres. 
Every  ganglion  concerned  in  the  needful  adjust- 
ments of  eyes  and  fingers  and  wrists,  or  in  the 
perception  of  musical  sounds,  has  undergone  a 
change  more  or  less  profound.  The  nature  of 
the  change  is  largely  a  matter  of  speculation  ; 
but  that  point  need  not  in  any  way  concern  us. 
It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  there  is  such 
a  change,  and  that  it  is  a  registration  of  experi- 
ences. The  pianist  has  registered  in  the  intimate 
structure  of  his  nervous  system  a  world  of  ex- 
periences entirely  foreign  to  persons  unfamiliar 
with  the  piano ;  and  upon  this  registration  his 
capacity  depends. 

Now  the  same  explanation  applies  to  all 
bodily  movements  whatever,  whether  compli- 
cated or  simple.  In  writing,  in  walking,  in  talk- 
ing, we  are  making  use  of  nervous  registrations 
that  have  been  brought  about  by  an  accumula- 
tion of  experiences.  To  pick  up  a  pencil  from 
the  table  may  seem  a  very  simple  act,  yet  a 
baby  cannot  do  it.  It  has  been  made  possible 
only  by  the  education  of  the  eyes,  of  the  mus- 
cles that  move  the  eyes,  of  the  arm  and  hand, 
and  of  the  nerve-centres  that  coordinate  one 
group  of  movements  with  another.  All  this 
multiform  education  has  consisted  in  a  gradual 
registration  of  experiences.  In  like  manner  all 
the  actions  of  man  upon  the  world  about  him 
294 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

are  made  up  of  movements,  and  every  such 
movement  becomes  possible  only  when  a  regis- 
tration is  effected  in  sundry  nerve-centres. 

But  this  is  not  the  whole  story.  The  case  is 
undoubtedly  the  same  with  those  visceral  move- 
ments, involuntary  and  in  great  part  uncon- 
scious, which  sustain  life ;  the  beating  of  the 
heart,  the  expansion  and  contraction  of  the  lungs, 
the  slight  changes  of  calibre  in  the  blood-vessels, 
even  the  movements  of  secretion  that  take  place 
in  glands.  All  these  actions  are  governed  by 
nerves,  and  these  nerves  have  had  to  be  edu- 
cated to  their  work.  This  education  has  been 
a  registration  of  experiences  chiefly  ancestral, 
throughout  an  enormous  past,  practically  since 
the  beginnings  of  vertebrate  life. 

With  the  earlier  and  simpler  forms  of  ani- 
mal existence  these  visceral  movements  are  the 
only  ones,  or  almost  the  only  ones,  that  have 
to  be  made.  Presently  the  movements  of  limbs 
and  sense  organs  come  to  be  added,  and  as  we 
rise  in  the  animal  scale,  these  movements  come 
to  be  endlessly  various  and  complex,  and  by 
and  by  implicate  the  nervous  system  more 
and  more  deeply  in  complex  acts  of  perception, 
memory,  reasoning,  and  volition.  Obviously, 
therefore,  in  the  development  of  the  individual 
organism  the  demands  of  the  nervous  system 
upon  the  vital  energies  concerned  in  growth 
must  come  to  be  of  paramount  importance, 
295 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

and  in  providing  for  them  the  entire  embryonic 
life  must  be  most  profoundly  and  variously  af- 
fected. Though  we  may  be  unable  to  follow 
the  processes  in  detail,  the  truth  of  this  general 
statement  is  plain  and  undeniable. 

I  say,  then,  that  when  a  creature's  intelli- 
gence is  low,  and  its  experience  very  meagre, 
consisting  of  a  few  simple  perceptions  and  acts 
that  occur  throughout  life  with  monotonous 
regularity,  all  the  registration  of  this  experience 
gets  effected  in  the  nerve-centres  of  its  offspring 
before  birth,  and  they  come  into  the  world  fully 
equipped  for  the  battle  of  life,  like  the  snapping 
turtle,  which  snaps  with  decisive  vigour  as  soon 
as  it  emerges  from  the  egg.  Nothing  is  left 
plastic  to  be  finished  after  birth,  and  so  the  life 
of  each  generation  is  almost  an  exact  repetition 
of  its  predecessor.  But  when  a  creature's  intel- 
ligence is  high,  and  its  experience  varied  and 
complicated,  the  registration  of  all  this  expe- 
rience in  the  nerve-centres  of  its  offspring  does 
not  get  accomplished  before  birth.  There  is 
not  time  enough.  The  most  important  regis- 
trations, such  as  those  needed  for  breathing  and 
swallowing  and  other  indispensable  acts,  are 
fully  effected ;  others,  such  as  those  needed  for 
handling  and  walking,  are  but  partially  effected ; 
others,  such  as  those  involved  in  the  recogni- 
tion of  creatures  not  important  as  enemies  or 
prey,  are  left  still  further  from  completion. 
296 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

Much  is  left  to  be  done  by  individual  experi- 
ence after  birth.  The  animal,  when  first  born, 
is  a  baby  dependent  upon  its  mother's  care.  At 
the  same  time  its  intelligence  is  far  more  plas- 
tic, and  it  remains  far  more  teachable,  than  the 
lower  animal  that  has  no  babyhood.  Dogs  and 
horses,  lions  and  elephants,  often  increase  in 
sagacity  until  late  in  life  ;  and  so  do  apes,  which, 
along  with  a  higher  intelligence  than  any  other 
dumb  animals,  have  a  much  longer  babyhood. 
We  are  now  prepared  to  appreciate  the  mar- 
vellous beauty  of  Nature's  work  in  bringing 
Man  upon  the  scene.  Nowhere  is  there  any 
breach  of  continuity  in  the  cosmic  process. 
First  we  have  natural  selection  at  work  through- 
out the  organic  world,  bringing  forth  millions 
of  species  of  plant  and  animal,  seizing  upon 
every  advantage,  physical  or  mental,  that  en- 
ables any  species  to  survive  in  the  universal 
struggle.  So  far  as  any  outward  observer,  back 
in  the  Cretaceous  or  early  Eocene  periods,  could 
surmise,  this  sort  of  confusion  might  go  on  for- 
ever. But  all  at  once,  perhaps  somewhere  in  the 
upper  Eocene  or  lower  Miocene,  it  appears 
that  among  the  primates,  a  newly  developing 
family  already  distinguished  for  prehensile  ca- 
pabilities, one  genus  is  beginning  to  sustain  it- 
self more  by  mental  craft  and  shiftiness  than 
by  any  physical  characteristic.  Forthwith  does 
natural  selection  seize  upon  any  and  every  ad- 
297 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

rantageous  variation  in  this  craft  and  shifti- 
ness, until  this  favoured  genus  of  primates,  this 
Homo  AlaluSy  or  speechless  man,  as  we  may  call 
him,  becomes  preeminent  for  sagacity,  as  the 
mammoth  is  preeminent  for  bulk,  or  the  giraffe 
for  length  of  neck. 


398 


VIII 
SOME   OF   ITS   EFFECTS 

IN  doing  this,  natural  selection  has  un- 
locked a  door  and  let  in  a  new  set  of 
causal  agencies.  As  Homo  Alalus  grows 
in  intelligence  and  variety  of  experience,  his 
helpless  babyhood  becomes  gradually  pro- 
longed, and  passes  not  into  sudden  maturity, 
but  into  a  more  or  less  plastic  intermediate 
period  of  youth.  Individual  experience,  as  con- 
trasted with  ancestral  experience,  counts  for 
much  more  than  ever  before  in  shaping  his  ac- 
tions, and  thus  he  begins  to  become  progressive. 
He  can  learn  many  more  new  ways  of  doing 
things  in  a  hundred  thousand  years  than  any 
other  creature  could  have  done  in  a  much  longer 
time.  Thus  the  rate  of  progress  is  enhanced, 
the  increasing  intelligence  of  Homo  Alalus  fur- 
ther lengthens  his  plastic  period  of  life,  and  this 
in  turn  further  increases  his  intelligence  and 
emphasizes  his  individuality.  The  evidence  is 
abundant  that  Homo  Alalus,  like  his  simian 
cousins,  was  a  gregarious  creature,  and  it  is  not 
difficult  to  see  how,  with  increasing  intelligence, 
the  gestures  and  grunts  used  in  the  horde  for 
299 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

signalling  must  come  to  be  clothed  with  added 
associations  of  meaning,  must  gradually  become 
generalized  as  signs  of  conceptions.  This  in- 
vention of  spoken  language,  the  first  invention 
of  nascent  humanity,  remains  to  this  day  its 
most  fruitful  invention.  Henceforth  ancestral 
experience  could  not  simply  be  transmitted 
through  its  inheritable  impress  upon  the  ner- 
vous system,  but  its  facts  and  lessons  could 
become  external  materials  and  instruments  of 
education.  Then  the  children  of  Homo  Alalus, 
no  longer  speechless,  began  to  accumulate  a 
fund  of  tradition,  which  in  the  fulness  of  time 
was  to  bloom  forth  in  history  and  poetry,  in 
science  and  theology.  From  the  outset  the  ac- 
quisition of  speech  must  greatly  have  increased 
the  rate  of  progress,  and  enhanced  the  rudi- 
mentary sociaHty. 

With  the  lengthening  of  infancy  the  period 
of  maternal  help  and  watchfulness  must  have 
lengthened  in  correspondence.  Natural  selec- 
tion must  keep  those  two  things  nicely  bal- 
anced, or  the  species  would  soon  become  ex- 
tinct. But  Homo  Alalus  had  not  only  a  mother, 
but  brethren  and  sisters ;  and  when  the  period 
of  infancy  became  sufficiently  long,  there  were 
a  series  of  Homunculi  Alali,  the  eldest  of  whom 
still  needed  more  or  less  care  while  the  third 
and  the  fourth  were  arriving  upon  the  scene.  In 

300 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

this  way  the  sentiment  of  maternity  became 
abiding.  The  cow  has  strong  feehngs  of  mater- 
nal affection  for  periods  of  a  few  weeks  at  a 
time,  but  lapses  into  indifference  and  probably 
cannot  distinguish  her  grown-up  calves  as  sus- 
taining any  nearer  relation  to  herself  than  other 
members  of  the  herd.  But  Femina  Alala,  with 
her  vastly  enlarged  intelligence,  is  called  upon 
for  the  exercise  of  maternal  affection  until  it 
becomes  a  permanent  part  of  her  nature.  In 
the  same  group  of  circumstances  begins  the 
permanency  of  the  marital  relation.  The  war- 
rior-hunter grows  accustomed  to  defending  the 
same  wife  and  children  and  to  helping  them  in 
securing  food.  Cases  of  what  we  may  term 
wedlock,  arising  in  this  way,  occur  sporadically 
among  apes  ;  its  thorough  establishment,  how- 
ever, was  not  achieved  until  after  the  genesis 
of  Humanity  had  been  completed  in  most  other 
respects.  The  elaborate  researches  of  Wester- 
marck  have  proved  that  permanent  marriage 
exists  even  among  savages  ;  it  did  not  prevail, 
however,  until  the  advanced  stage  of  culture 
represented  by  the  Aztecs  in  aboriginal  Amer- 
ica and  the  Neolithic  peoples  of  ancient  Europe. 
As  for  strict  monogamy,  it  is  a  comparatively 
late  achievement  of  civilization.  What  the  in- 
creased and  multiplied  duration  of  infancy  at 
first  accomplished  was  the  transformation  of 


301 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

miscellaneous  hordes  of  Homines  Alali  into  or- 
ganized clans  recognizing  kinship  through  the 
mother,  as  exemplified  among  nearly  all  Ameri- 
can Indians  when  observed  by  Europeans. 

Thus  by  gradual  stages  we  have  passed  from 
four-footed  existence  into  Human  Society,  and 
once  more  I  would  emphasize  the  fact  that  no- 
where do  we  find  any  breach  of  continuity,  but 
one  factor  sets  another  in  operation,  which  in 
turn  reacts  upon  the  first,  and  so  on  in  a  mar- 
vellously harmonious  consensus.  Surely  if  there 
is  anywhere  in  the  universe  a  story  matchless 
for  its  romantic  interest,  it  is  the  story  of  the 
genesis  of  Man,  now  that  we  are  at  length  be- 
ginning to  be  able  to  decipher  it.  We  see  that 
there  is  a  good  deal  more  in  it  than  mere  nat- 
ural selection.  At  bottom,  indeed,  it  is  all  a 
process  of  survival  of  the  fittest,  but  the  sec- 
ondary agencies  we  have  been  considering  have 
brought  us  to  a  point  where  our  conception  of 
the  Struggle  for  Life  must  be  enlarged.  Out  of 
the  manifold  compounding  and  recompounding 
of  primordial  clans  have  come  the  nations  of 
mankind  in  various  degrees  of  civilization,  but 
already  in  the  clan  we  find  the  ethical  process 
at  work.  The  clan  has  a  code  of  morals  well 
adapted  to  the  conditions  amid  which  it  exists. 
There  is  an  ethical  sentiment  in  the  clan  ;  its 
members  have  duties  toward  it;   it  punishes 


302 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

sundry  acts  even  with  death,  and  rewards  or 
extols  sundry  other  acts.  We  are,  in  short,  in 
an  ethical  atmosphere,  crude  and  stifling,  doubt- 
less, as  compared  with  that  of  a  modern  Chris- 
tian homestead,  but  still  unquestionably  ethical. 


303 


fX 


ORIGIN  OF  MORAL  IDEAS  AND 
SENTIMENTS 

NOW,  here  at  last,  in  encountering  the 
ethical  process  at  work,  have  we  de- 
tected a  breach  of  continuity  ?  Has  the 
moral  sentiment  been  flung  in  from  outside,  or 
is  it  a  natural  result  of  the  cosmic  process  we 
have  been  sketching  ?  Clearly  it  is  the  latter. 
There  has  been  no  breach  of  continuity.  When 
the  prolongation  of  infancy  produced  the  clan, 
there  naturally  arose  reciprocal  necessities  of 
behaviour  among  the  members  of  the  clan,  its 
mothers  and  children,  its  hunters  and  warriors. 
If  such  reciprocal  necessities  were  to  be  disre- 
garded the  clan  would  dissolve,  and  dissolution 
would  be  general  destruction.  For,  bear  in 
mind,  the  clan,  when  once  evolved,  becomes  the 
unit  whose  preservation  is  henceforth  the  per- 
manent necessity.  It  is  infancy  that  has  made 
it  so.  A  miscellaneous  horde,  with  brief  in- 
fancies for  its  younger  members,  may  survive  a 
very  extensive  slaughter  ;  but  in  a  clan,  where 
the  proportion  of  helpless  children  is  much 
greater,  and  a  considerable  division  of  labour 

304 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

between  nurses  and  warriors  has  become  es- 
tablished, the  case  is  different.  An  amount  or 
degree  of  calamity  sufficient  to  break  up  its  or- 
ganization will  usually  mean  total  ruin.  Hence, 
when  Nature's  travail  has  at  length  brought 
forth  the  clan,  its  requirements  forthwith  be- 
come paramount,  and  each  member's  conduct 
from  babyhood  must  conform  to  them.  Natural 
selection  henceforth  invests  her  chief  capital  in 
the  enterprise  of  preserving  the  clan.  In  that 
primitive  social  unit  lie  all  the  potentiality  and 
promise  of  Human  Society  through  untold  fu- 
ture ages.  So  for  age  after  age  those  clans  in 
which  the  conduct  of  the  individuals  is  best 
subordinated  to  the  general  welfare  are  sure  to 
prevail  over  clans  in  which  the  subordination  is 
less  perfect.  As  the  maternal  instinct  had  been 
cultivated  for  thousands  of  generations  before 
clanship  came  into  existence,  so  for  many  suc- 
ceeding ages  of  turbulence  the  patriotic  instinct, 
which  prompts  to  the  defence  of  home,  was  cul- 
tivated under  penalty  of  death.  Clans  defended 
by  weakly  loyal  or  cowardly  warriors  were  sure 
to  perish.  Unflinching  bravery  and  devoted  pa- 
triotism were  virtues  necessary  to  the  survival 
of  the  community,  and  were  thus  preserved 
until  at  the  dawn  of  historic  times,  in  the  most 
grandly  militant  of  clan  societies,  we  find  the 
word  virtus  connoting  just  these  qualities,  and 
no  sooner  does  the  fateful  gulf  yawn  open  in 
305 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

the  forum  than  a  Curtius  joyfully  leaps  into  it, 
that  the  commonwealth  may  be  preserved  from 
harm. 

Now  the  moment  a  man's  voluntary  actions 
are  determined  by  conscious  or  unconscious 
reference  to  a  standard  outside  of  himself  and 
his  selfish  motives,  he  has  entered  the  world  of 
ethics,  he  has  begun  to  live  in  a  moral  atmos- 
phere. Egoism  has  ceased  to  be  all  in  all,  and 
altruism  —  it  is  an  ugly-sounding  word,  but 
seems  to  be  the  only  one  available  —  altruism 
has  begun  to  assert  its  claim  to  sovereignty.  In 
the  earlier  and  purely  animal  stages  of  existence 
it  was  right  enough  for  each  individual  to  pur- 
sue pleasure  and  avoid  pain  ;  it  did  not  en- 
danger the  welfare  of  the  species,  but  on  the 
contrary  it  favoured  that  welfare  ;  in  its  origin 
avoidance  of  pain  was  the  surest  safeguard  for 
the  perpetuation  of  life,  and  with  due  qualifica- 
tions that  is  still  the  case.  But  as  soon  as  soci- 
ality became  established,  and  Nature's  supreme 
end  became  the  maintenance  of  the  clan  organ- 
ization, the  standard  for  the  individual's  con- 
duct became  shifted,  permanently  and  forever 
shifted.  Limits  were  interposed  at  which  plea- 
sure must  be  resigned  and  pain  endured,  even 
certain  death  encountered,  for  the  sake  of  the 
clan ;  perhaps  the  individual  did  not  always 
understand  it  in  that  way,  but  at  all  events  it 
was  for  the  sake  of  some  rule  recognized  in  the 
306 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

clan,  some  rule  which,  as  his  mother  and  all  his 
kin  had  from  his  earliest  childhood  inculcated 
upon  him,  ought  to  be  obeyed.  This  conception 
of  ought,  of  obligation,  of  duty,  of  debt  to 
something  outside  of  self,  resulted  from  the 
shifting  of  the  standard  of  conduct  outside  of 
the  individual's  self.  Once  thus  externalized, 
objectivized,  the  ethical  standard  demanded 
homage  from  the  individual.  It  furnished  the 
rule  for  a  higher  life  than  one  dictated  by  mere 
selfishness.  Speaking  after  the  manner  of  nat- 
uralists, I  here  use  the  phrase  "  higher  life " 
advisedly.  It  was  the  kind  of  life  that  was  con- 
ducive to  the  preservation  and  further  develop- 
ment of  the  highest  form  of  animate  existence 
that  had  been  attained.  It  appears  to  me  that 
we  begin  to  find  for  ethics  the  most  tremendous 
kind  of  sanction  in  the  nature  of  the  cosmic 
process. 

A  word  of  caution  may  be  needed.  It  is  not 
for  a  moment  to  be  supposed  that  when  primi- 
tive men  began  crudely  shaping  their  conduct 
with  reference  to  a  standard  outside  of  self,  they 
did  so  as  the  result  of  meditation,  or  with  any 
realizing  sense  of  what  they  were  doing.  That 
has  never  been  the  method  of  evolution.  Its 
results  steal  upon  the  world  noiselessly  and  un- 
observed, and  only  after  they  have  long  been 
with  us  does  reason  employ  itself  upon  them. 
The  wolf  does  not  eat  the  lamb  because  he  re- 

307 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

gards  a  flesh  diet  as  necessary  to  his  health  and 
activity,  but  because  he  is  hungry,  and,  like  Mr. 
Harold  Skimpole,  he  likes  lamb.  It  was  no  in- 
tellectual perception  of  needs  and  consequences 
that  lengthened  the  maternal  instinct  with  pri- 
meval mothers  as  the  period  of  infancy  length- 
ened. Nor  was  it  any  such  intellectual  percep- 
tion that  began  to  enthrone  "  I  ought "  in  the 
place  of  "  I  wish."  If  in  the  world's  recurrent 
crises  Nature  had  waited  to  be  served  by  the 
flickering  lamp  of  reason,  the  story  would  not 
have  been  what  it  is.  Her  method  has  been, 
with  the  advent  of  a  new  situation,  to  modify 
the  existing  group  of  instincts  ;  and  this  work 
she  will  not  let  be  slighted  ;  in  her  train  follows 
the  lictor  with  the  symbols  of  death,  and  there 
is  neither  pity  nor  relenting.  In  the  primeval 
warfare  between  clans,  those  in  which  the  in- 
stincts were  not  so  modified  as  to  shift  the 
standard  of  conduct  outside  of  the  individual's 
self  must  inevitably  have  succumbed  and  per- 
ished under  the  pressure  of  those  in  which  the 
instincts  had  begun  to  experience  such  modifi- 
cation. The  moral  law  grew  up  in  the  world 
not  because  anybody  asked  for  it,  but  because 
it  was  needed  for  the  world's  work.  If  it  is  not 
a  product  of  the  cosmic  process,  it  would  be 
hard  to  find  anything  that  could  be  so  called. 


308 


X 


THE  COSMIC  PROCESS  EXISTS 

PURELY  FOR  THE  SAKE  OF 

MORAL  ENDS 

I  HAVE  not  undertaken  to  make  my  out- 
line sketch  of  the  genesis  of  Humanity 
approach  to  completeness,  but  only  to  pre- 
sent enough  salient  points  to  make  a  closely 
connected  argument  in  showing  how  morality 
is  evolved  in  the  cosmic  process  and  sanctioned 
by  it.  In  a  more  complete  sketch  it  would  be 
necessary  to  say  something  about  the  genesis  of 
Religion.  One  of  the  most  interesting,  and  in 
my  opinion  one  of  the  most  profoundly  signifi- 
cant facts  in  the  whole  process  of  evolution  is 
the  first  appearance  of  religious  sentiment  at 
very  nearly  the  same  stage  at  which  the  moral 
law  began  to  grow  up.  To  the  differential  attri- 
butes of  Humanity  already  considered  there 
needs  to  be  added  the  possession  of  religious 
sentiment  and  religious  ideas.  We  may  safely 
say  that  this  is  the  most  important  of  all  the 
distinctions  between  Man  and  other  animals  ; 
for  to  say  so  is  simply  to  epitomize  the  whole 
of  human  experience  as  recorded  in  history, 
309 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

art,  and  literature.  Along  with  the  rise  from 
gregariousness  to  incipient  sociality,  along  with 
the  first  stammerings  of  articulate  speech,  along 
with  the  dawning  discrimination  between  right 
and  wrong,  came  the  earliest  feeble  groping  to- 
ward a  world  beyond  that  which  greets  the 
senses,  the  first  dim  recognition  of  the  Spiritual 
Power  that  is  revealed  in  and  through  the  vis- 
ible and  palpable  realm  of  nature.  And  uni- 
versally since  that  time  the  notion  of  Ethics 
has  been  inseparably  associated  with  the  notion 
of  Religion,  and  the  sanction  for  Ethics  has 
been  held  to  be  closely  related  with  the  world 
beyond  phenomena.  There  are  philosophers 
who  maintain  that  with  the  further  progress  of 
enlightenment  this  close  relation  will  cease  to  be 
asserted,  that  Ethics  will  be  divorced  from  Re- 
ligion, and  that  the  groping  of  the  Human  Soul 
after  its  God  will  be  condemned  as  a  mere  sur- 
vival from  the  errors  of  primitive  savagery,  a 
vain  and  idle  reaching  out  toward  a  world  of 
mere  phantoms.  I  mention  this  opinion  merely 
to  express  unqualified  and  total  dissent  from  it. 
I  believe  it  can  be  shown  that  one  of  the  strong- 
est implications  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  is 
the  Everlasting  Reality  of  Religion. 

But  we  have  not  time  at  present  for  entering 
upon  so  vast  a  subject.    Let  this  reference  suf- 
fice to  show  that  it  has  not  been  passed  over  or 
forgotten  in  my  theory  of  the  genesis  of  Hu- 
310 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

manity.  In  an  account  of  the  evolution  of  the 
religious  sentiment,  its  first  appearance  as  coeval, 
or  nearly  so,  with  the  beginnings  of  the  ethical 
process  would  assume  great  importance.  We 
have  here  been  concerned  purely  with  the  ethi- 
cal process  itself,  which  we  have  found  to  be  — 
as  Huxley  truly  says  in  his  footnote  —  part  and 
parcel  of  the  general  process  of  evolution.  Our 
historical  survey  of  the  genesis  of  Humanity 
seems  to  show  very  forcibly  that  a  society  of 
Human  Souls  living  in  conformity  to  a  perfect 
Moral  Law  is  the  end  toward  which,  ever  since 
the  time  when  our  solar  system  was  a  patch  of 
nebulous  vapour,  the  cosmic  process  has  been 
aiming.  After  our  cooling  planet  had  become 
the  seat  of  organic  life,  the  process  of  natural  se- 
lection went  on  for  long  ages  seemingly,  but  not 
really  at  random  ;  for  our  retrospect  shows  that 
its  ultimate  tendency  was  towards  singling  out 
one  creature  and  exalting  his  intelligence. 

Now  we  have  seen  that  this  increase  of  intel- 
ligence itself,  by  entailing  upon  Man  the  help- 
lessness of  infancy,  led  directly  to  the  produc- 
tion of  those  social  conditions  that  called  the 
ethical  process  into  play  and  set  it  actively  to 
work.  Thus  we  may  see  the  absurdity  of  try- 
ing to  separate  the  moral  nature  of  Man  from 
the  rest  of  his  nature,  and  to  assign  for  it  a  sep- 
arate and  independent  history.  The  essential 
solidarity  in  the  cosmic  process  will  admit  of 
3^1 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

no  such  fanciful  detachment  of  one  part  from 
another.  All  parts  are  involved  one  in  another. 
Again,  the  ethical  process  is  not  only  part  and 
parcel  of  the  cosmic  process,  but  it  is  its  crown 
and  consummation.  Toward  the  spiritual  per- 
fection of  Humanity  the  stupendous  momen- 
tum of  the  cosmic  process  has  all  along  been 
tending.  That  spiritual  perfection  is  the  true 
goal  of  evolution,  the  divine  end  that  was  in- 
volved in  the  beginning.  When  Huxley  asks 
us  to  believe  that  "the  cosmic  process  has  no 
sort  of  relation  to  moral  ends,"  I  feel  like  re- 
plying with  the  question,  "  Does  not  the  cosmic 
process  exist  purely  for  the  sake  of  moral  ends  ? " 
Subtract  from  the  universe  its  ethical  meaning, 
and  nothing  remains  but  an  unreal  phantom, 
the  figment  of  false  metaphysics. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  a  position  from 
which  a  glimmer  of  light  is  thrown  upon  some 
of  the  dark  problems  connected  with  the  moral 
government  of  the  world.  We  can  begin  to  see 
why  misery  and  wrong-doing  are  permitted  to 
exist,  and  why  the  creative  energy  advances 
by  such  slow  and  tortuous  methods  toward  the 
fulfilment  of  its  divine  purpose.  In  order  to 
understand  these  things,  we  must  ask.  What  is 
the  ultimate  goal  of  the  ethical  process  ?  Ac- 
cording to  the  utilitarian  philosophy  that  goal  is 
the  completion  of  human  happiness.  But  this 
interpretation  soon  refutes  itself.  A  world 
312 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

of  completed  happiness  might  well  be  a  world 
of  quiescence,  of  stagnation,  of  automatism,  of 
blankness  ;  the  dynamics  of  evolution  would 
have  no  place  in  it.  But  suppose  we  say  that 
the  ultimate  goal  of  the  ethical  process  is  the 
perfecting  of  human  character  ?  This  form  of 
statement  contains  far  more  than  the  other. 
Consummation  of  happiness  is  a  natural  out- 
come of  the  perfecting  of  character,  but  that 
perfecting  can  be  achieved  only  through  strug- 
gle, through  discipline,  through  resistance.  It  is 
for  him  that  overcometh  that  the  crown  of  life  is 
reserved.  The  consummate  product  of  a  world 
of  evolution  is  the  character  that  creates  happi- 
ness, that  is  replete  with  dynamic  possibilities  of 
fresh  life  and  activity  in  directions  forever  new. 
Such  a  character  is  the  reflected  image  of  God, 
and  in  it  are  contained  the  promise  and  potency 
of  life  everlasting. 

No  such  character  could  be  produced  by  any 
act  of  special  creation  in  a  garden  of  Eden.  It 
must  be  the  consummate  efflorescence  of  long 
ages  of  evolution,  and  a  world  of  evolution  is 
necessarily  characterized  by  slow  processes,  many 
of  which  to  a  looker-on  seem  like  tentative  ex- 
periments, with  an  enormous  sacrifice  of  ephem- 
eral forms  of  life.  Thus  while  the  Earth  Spirit 
goes  on,  unhasting,  yet  unresting,  weaving  in 
the  loom  of  Time  the  visible  garment  of  God, 
we  begin  to  see  that  even  what  look  like  fail- 

2^3 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

ures  and  blemishes  have  been  from  the  outset 
involved  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  all-wise 
and  all-holy  purpose,  the  perfecting  of  the  spir- 
itual Man  in  the  likeness  of  his  Heavenly  Fa- 
ther. 

These  points  will  receive  further  indirect  il- 
lustration as  we  complete  our  outline  sketch  of 
the  cosmic  process  in  the  past.  It  is  self-evident 
that  in  the  production  of  an  ethical  character, 
altruistic  feelings  and  impulses  must  cooperate. 
Let  us  look,  then,  for  some  of  the  beginnings 
of  altruism  in  the  course  of  the  evolution  of 
life. 


314 


XI 


MATERNITY  AND  THE   EVOLU- 
TION  OF   ALTRUISM 

FROM  an  early  period  of  the  life-history 
of  our  planet,  the  preservation  of  the 
species  had  obviously  become  quite  as 
imperative  an  end  as  the  preservation  of  indi- 
viduals ;  one  is  at  first  inclined  to  say  more 
imperative,  but  if  we  pause  long  enough  to  re- 
member that  total  failure  to  preserve  individuals 
would  be  equivalent  to  immediate  extinction 
of  the  species,  we  see  that  the  one  requirement 
is  as  indispensable  as  the  other.  Individuals 
must  be  preserved,  and  the  struggle  for  life  is 
between  them  ;  species  must  be  preserved,  and 
in  the  rivalry  those  have  the  best  chance  in 
which  the  offspring  are  either  most  redundant 
in  numbers  or  are  best  cared  for.  In  plants  and 
animals  of  all  but  the  higher  types,  the  offspring 
are  spores  or  seeds,  larvae  or  spawn,  or  self- 
maturing  eggs.  In  the  absence  of  parental  care 
the  persistence  of  the  species  is  ensured  by  the 
enormous  number  of  such  offspring.  A  single 
codfish,  in  a  single  season,  will  lay  six  million 
eggs,  nearly  all  of  which  perish,  of  course,  or 

3^5 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

else  In  a  few  years  the  ocean  could  not  hold  all 
the  codfishes.  But  the  princess  in  the  Arabian 
tale,  who  fought  with  the  mahgnant  Jinni,  could 
not  for  her  life  pick  up  all  the  scattered  seeds  of 
the  pomegranate  ;  and  in  like  manner  of  the  cod- 
fish eggs,  one  in  a  million  or  so  escapes  and  the 
species  is  maintained.  But  In  the  highest  types 
of  animal  life  in  birds  and  mammals  —  with 
their  four-chambered  hearts,  completely  arterlal- 
ized  blood,  and  enhanced  consciousness  —  pa- 
rental care  becomes  effective  in  protecting  the 
offspring,  and  the  excessive  production  dimin- 
ishes. With  birds,  the  necessity  of  maintaining 
a  high  temperature  for  the  eggs  leads  to  the 
building  of  nests,  to  a  division  of  labour  in  the 
securing  of  food,  to  the  development  of  a  tem- 
porary maternal  instinct,  and  to  conjugal  alli- 
ances which  In  some  birds  last  for  a  lifetime. 
As  the  eggs  become  effectively  guarded  the 
number  diminishes,  till  instead  of  millions  there 
are  half  a  dozen.  When  It  comes  to  her  more 
valuable  products,  Nature  Is  not  such  a  reckless 
squanderer  after  all.  So  with  mammals,  for  the 
most  part  the  young  are  In  litters  of  half  a 
dozen  or  so;  but  In  Man,  with  his  prolonged 
and  costly  Infancy,  parental  care  reaches  its 
highest  development  and  concentration  in  rear- 
ing children  one  by  one. 

From  the  dawn  of  life,  I  need  hardly  say,  all 
the  Instincts  that  have  contributed  to  the  pre- 
316 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

servation  of  offspring  must  have  been  favoured 
and  cultivated  by  natural  selection,  and  in  many 
cases  even  in  types  of  life  very  remote  from 
Humanity,  such  instincts  have  prompted  to 
very  different  actions  from  such  as  would  flow 
from  the  mere  instinct  of  self-preservation.  If 
you  thrust  your  walking-stick  into  an  ant-heap, 
and  watch  the  wild  hurry  and  confusion  that 
ensues  when  part  of  the  interior  is  laid  bare,  you 
will  see  that  all  the  workers  are  busy  in  moving 
the  larvae  into  places  of  safety.  It  is  not  exactly 
a  maternal  instinct,  for  the  workers  are  not 
mothers,  but  it  is  an  altruistic  instinct  involving 
acts  of  self-devotion.  So  in  the  case  of  fish  that 
ascend  rivers  or  bays  at  spawning  time,  the 
actions  of  the  whole  shoal  are  determined  by  a 
temporarily  predominant  instinct  that  tends  to- 
wards an  altruistic  result.  In  these  and  lower 
grades  of  life  there  is  already  something  at  work 
besides  the  mere  struggle  for  life  between  indi- 
viduals ;  there  is  something  more  than  mere 
contention  and  slaughter ;  there  is  the  effort 
toward  cherishing  another  life  than  one's  own. 
In  these  regions  of  animate  existence  we  catch 
glimpses  of  the  cosmic  roots  of  love  and  self- 
sacrifice.  For  the  simplest  and  rudest  produc- 
tions of  Nature  mere  egoism  might  suffice,  but 
to  the  achievement  of  any  higher  aim  some 
adumbration  of  altruism  was  indispensable. 
Before  such  divine  things  as  love  and  self- 

317 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

sacrifice  could  spring  up  from  their  cosmic  roots 
and  put  forth  their  efflorescence,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  conscious  personal  relations  should 
become  established  between  mother  and  infant. 
We  have  already  observed  the  critical  impor- 
tance of  these  relations  in  the  earliest  stages  of 
the  evolution  of  human  society.  We  may  now 
add  that  the  relation  between  mother  and  child 
must  have  furnished  the  first  occasion  for  the 
sustained  and  regular  development  of  the  altru- 
istic feelings.  The  capacity  for  unselfish  de- 
votion called  forth  in  that  relation  could  after- 
ward be  utilized  in  the  conduct  of  individuals 
not  thus  related  to  one  another. 

Of  all  kinds  of  altruism  the  mother's  was  no 
doubt  the  earliest ;  it  was  the  derivative  source 
from  which  all  other  kinds  were  by  slow  degrees 
developed.  In  the  evolution  of  these  altruistic 
feelings,  therefore,  —  feelings  which  are  an  ab- 
solutely indispensable  constituent  in  the  process 
of  ethical  development,  —  the  first  appearance 
of  real  maternity  was  an  epoch  of  most  profound 
interest  and  importance  in  the  history  of  life 
upon  the  earth. 

Now  maternity,  in  the  true  and  full  sense  of 
the  word,  is  something  which  was  not  realized 
until  a  comparatively  recent  stage  of  the  earth's 
history.  God's  highest  work  is  never  perfected 
save  in  the  fulness  of  time.  For  countless  ages 
there  were  parents   and   offspring  before  the 

318 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

slow  but  never  aimless  or  wanton  cosmic  pro- 
cess had  brought  into  existence  the  conscious 
personal  relationship  between  mother  and  child. 
Protection  of  eggs  and  larvae  scarcely  suffices 
for  the  evolution  of  true  maternity  ;  the  relation 
of  moth  to  caterpillar  is  certainly  very  far  from 
being  a  prototype  of  it.  What  spectacle  could 
be  more  dreary  than  that  of  the  Jurassic  period, 
with  its  lords  of  creation,  the  oviparous  dino- 
saurs, crawling  or  bounding  over  the  land, 
splashing  amid  the  mighty  waters,  whizzing 
bat-like  through  the  air,  horrible  brutes  in- 
numerable, with  bulky  bodies  and  tiny  brains, 
clumsy,  coarse  in  fibre,  and  cold-blooded. 

'*  Dragons  of  the  prime. 
That  tare  each  other  in  their  slime." 

The  remnants  of  that  far-off  dismal  age  have 
been  left  behind  in  great  abundance,  and  from 
them  we  can  easily  reconstruct  the  loathsome 
picture  of  a  world  of  dominating  egoism,  whose 
redemption  through  the  evolution  of  true  ma- 
ternity had  not  yet  effectively  begun.  For  such 
a  world  might  Caliban's  theology  indeed  seem 
fitted.  Nearly  nine  tenths  of  our  planet's  past 
life-history,  measured  in  duration,  had  passed 
away  without  achieving  any  higher  result  than 
this,  —  a  fact  which  for  impatient  reformers  may 
have  in  it  some  crumbs  of  consolation. 

For,  though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly, 
the  cosmic  process  was    aiming  at   something 

319 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

better  than  egoism  and  dinosaurs,  and  at  some 
time  during  the  long  period  of  the  Chalk  de- 
posits there  began  the  tremendous  world-wide 
rivalry  between  these  dragons  and  the  rising 
class  of  warm-blooded  viviparous  mammals 
which  had  hitherto  played  an  insignificant  part 
in  the  world.  The  very  name  of  this  class  of 
animals  is  taken  from  the  function  of  mother- 
hood. The  offspring  of  these  "  mammas  "  come 
into  the  world  as  recognizable  personalities,  so 
far  developed  that  the  relation  between  mother 
and  child  begins  as  a  relation  of  personal  affec- 
tion. The  new-born  mammal  is  not  an  egg  nor 
a  caterpillar,  but  a  baby,  and  the  baby's  dawn- 
ing consciousness  opens  up  a  narrow  horizon 
of  sympathy  and  tenderness,  a  horizon  of  which 
the  expansion  shall  in  due  course  of  ages  reveal 
a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  At  first  the 
nascent  altruism  was  crude  enough,  but  it  must 
have  sufficed  to  make  mutual  understanding  and 
cooperation  more  possible  than  before ;  it  thus 
contributed  to  the  advancement  of  mammalian 
intelligence,  and  prepared  the  way  for  gregari- 
ousness,  by  and  by  to  culminate  in  sociality,  as 
already  described.  In  the  history  of  creation  the 
mammals  were  moderns,  equipped  with  more 
effective  means  of  ensuring  survival  than  their 
oviparous  antagonists.  The  development  of 
complete  mammality  was  no  sudden  thing. 
Some  of  the  dinosaurs  may  have  been  ovovivi- 
320 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

parous,  like  some  modern  serpents.  The  Aus- 
tralian duck-bill,  a  relic  of  the  most  ancient  in- 
cipient mammality,  is  still  oviparous  ;  the  opos- 
sum and  kangaroo  preserve  the  record  of  a  stage 
when  viviparousness  was  but  partially  achieved  ; 
but  with  the  advent  of  the  placental  mammals 
the  break  with  the  old  order  of  things  was 
complete. 

The  results  of  the  struggle  are  registered  in 
the  Eocene  rocks.  The  ancient  world  had  found 
its  Waterloo.  Gone  were  the  dragons  who  so 
long  had  lorded  it  over  both  hemispheres, — 
brontosaurs,  iguanodons,  plesiosaurs,  laslaps, 
pterodactyls,  —  all  gone  ;  their  uncouth  brood 
quite  vanished  from  the  earth,  and  nothing  left 
alive  as  a  reminder,  save  a  few  degenerate  col- 
lateral kin,  such  as  snakes  and  crocodiles,  objects 
of  dread  and  loathing  to  higher  creatures.  Never 
in  the  history  of  our  planet  has  there  been  a 
more  sweeping  victory  than  that  of  the  mam- 
mals, nor  has  Nature  had  any  further  occasion 
for  victories  of  that  sort.  The  mammal  remains 
the  highest  type  of  animal  existence,  and  sub- 
sequent progress  has  been  shown  in  the  perfect- 
ing of  that  type  where  most  perfectible. 


321 


XII 

THE   OMNIPRESENT   ETHICAL 
TREND 

WITH  the  evolution  of  trae  maternity 
Nature  was  ready  to  proceed  to  her 
highest  grades  of  work.  Intelligence 
was  next  to  be  lifted  to  higher  levels,  and  the 
order  of  mammals  with  greatest  prehensile  ca- 
pacities, the  primates  with  their  incipient  hands, 
were  the  most  favourable  subjects  in  which  to 
carry  on  this  process.  The  later  stages  of  the 
marvellous  story  we  have  already  passed  in  re- 
view. We  have  seen  the  accumulating  intelli- 
gence lengthen  the  period  of  infancy,  and  thus 
prolong  the  relations  of  loving  sympathy  be- 
tween mother  and  child ;  we  have  seen  the  hu- 
man family  and  human  society  thus  brought 
into  existence;  and  along  therewith  we  have 
recognized  the  necessity  laid  upon  each  individ- 
ual for  conforming  his  conduct  to  a  standard 
external  to  himself.  At  this  point,  without  en- 
countering any  breach  of  continuity  in  the  cosmic 
process,  we  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  ethical 
world,  and  entered  a  region  where  civilization, 
or  the  gradual  perfecting  of  the  spiritual  quali- 
322 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

ties,  is  henceforth  Nature's  paramount  aim.  To 
penetrate  further  into  this  region  would  be  to 
follow  the  progress  of  civilization,  while  the 
primitive  canoe  develops  into  the  Cunard  steam- 
ship, the  hieroglyphic  battle-sketch  into  epics 
and  dramas,  sun-catcher  myths  into  the  New- 
tonian astronomy,  wandering  tribes  into  mighty 
nations,  the  ethics  of  the  clan  into  the  moral 
law  for  all  men.  The  story  shows  us  Man  be- 
coming more  and  more  clearly  the  image  of 
God,  exercising  creative  attributes,  transform- 
ing his  physical  environment,  incarnating  his 
thoughts  in  visible  and  tangible  shapes  all 
over  the  world,  and  extorting  from  the  abysse? 
of  space  the  secrets  of  vanished  ages.  From 
lowly  beginnings,  without  breach  of  continuity, 
and  through  the  cumulative  action  of  minute 
and  inconspicuous  causes,  the  resistless  momen- 
tum of  cosmic  events  has  tended  toward  such 
kind  of  consummation  ;  and  part  and  parcel  of 
the  whole  process,  inseparably  wrapped  up  with 
every  other  part,  has  been  the  evolution  of  the 
sentiments  which  tend  to  subordinate  mere 
egoism  to  unselfish  and  moral  ends. 

A  narrow  or  partial  survey  might  fail  to  make 
clear  the  solidarity  of  the  cosmic  process.  But 
the  history  of  creation,  when  broadly  and  pa- 
tiently considered,  brings  home  to  us  with  fresh 
emphasis  the  profound  truth  of  what  Emerson 
once  said,  that  "  the  lesson  of  life  ...  is  to 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

believe  what  the  years  and  the  centuries  say 
against  the  hours ;  to  resist  the  usurpation  of 
particulars  ;  to  penetrate  to  their  catholic  sense." 
When  we  have  learned  this  lesson,  our  mis- 
givings vanish,  and  we  breathe  a  clear  atmos- 
phere of  faith.  Though  in  many  ways  God's 
work  is  above  our  comprehension,  yet  those 
parts  of  the  world's  story  that  we  can  decipher 
well  warrant  the  belief  that  while  in  Nature 
there  may  be  divine  irony,  there  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  wanton  mockery,  for  profoundly  un- 
derlying the  surface  entanglement  of  her  actions 
we  may  discern  the  omnipresent  ethical  trend. 
The  moral  sentiments,  the  moral  law,  devotion 
to  unselfish  ends,  disinterested  love,  nobilitv  of 
soul,  —  these  are  Nature's  most  highly  wrought 
products,  latest  in  coming  to  maturity ;  they 
are  the  consummation,  toward  which  all  earlier 
prophecy  has  pointed.  We  are  right,  then,  in 
greeting  the  rejuvenescent  summer  with  devout 
faith  and  hope.  Below  the  surface  din  and  clash- 
ing of  the  struggle  for  life  we  hear  the  undertone 
of  the  deep  ethical  purpose,  as  it  rolls  in  solemn 
music  through  the  ages,  its  volume  swelled  by 
every  victory,  great  or  small,  of  right  over  wrong, 
till  in  the  fulness  of  time,  in  God's  own  time, 
it  shall  burst  forth  in  the  triumphant  chorus  of 
Humanity  purified  and  redeemed. 


THE  EVERLASTING  REALITY  OF 
RELIGION 


Here  sits  he  shaping  wings  to  fly  ; 
His  heart  forebodes  a  mystery  : 
He  names  the  name  Eternity. 

That  type  of  Perfect  in  his  mind 
In  Nature  can  he  nowhere  find. 
He  sows  himself  on  every  wind. 

He  seems  to  hear  a  Heavenly  Friend, 
And  through  thick  veils  to  apprehend 
A  labour  working  to  an  end. 

Tknnyson,  The  Two  Voices, 


I 

"DEO   EREXIT   VOLTAIRE" 

THE  visitor  to  Geneva  whose  studies 
have  made  him  duly  acquainted  with 
the  most  interesting  human  personal- 
ity of  all  that  are  associated  with  that  historic 
city  will  never  leave  the  place  without  making 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  chateau  of  Ferney.  In  that 
refined  and  quiet  rural  homestead  things  still 
remain  very  much  as  on  the  day  when  the  aged 
Voltaire  left  it  for  the  last  visit  to  Paris,  where 
his  long  life  was  worthily  ended  amid  words 
and  deeds  of  affectionate  homage.  One  may 
sit  down  at  the  table  where  was  written  the 
most  perfect  prose,  perhaps,  that  ever  flowed 
from  pen,  and  look  about  the  little  room  with 
its  evidences  of  plain  living  and  high  thinking, 
until  one  seems  to  recall  the  eccentric  figure 
of  the  vanished  Master,  with  his  flashes  of 
shrewd  wisdom  and  caustic  wit,  his  insatiable 
thirst  for  knowledge,  his  consuming  hatred  of 
bigotry  and  oppression,  his  merciless  contempt 
for  shams,  his  boundless  enthusiasm  of  human- 
ity. As  we  stroll  in  the  park,  that  quaint  pre- 
sence goes  along  with  us  till  all  at  once  in  a 
327 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

shady  walk  we  come  upon  something  highly- 
significant  and  characteristic,  the  little  parish 
church  with  its  Latin  inscription  over  the  por- 
tal, Deo  erexit  Voltaire,  i.  e.  "  Voltaire  built  it 
for  God,"  and  as  we  muse  upon  it,  the  piercing 
eyes  and  sardonic  but  not  unkindly  smile  seem 
still  to  follow  us.  What  meant  this  eccentric 
inscription  ? 

When  Voltaire  became  possessor  of  the  manor 
of  Ferney,  the  church  was  badly  out  of  repair, 
and  stood  where  it  obstructed  the  view  from 
certain  windows  of  the  chateau.  So  he  had  it 
cleared  away,  and  built  in  a  better  spot  the  new 
church  that  is  still  there.  It  was  duly  conse- 
crated, and  the  Pope  further  hallowed  it  with 
some  relics  of  ancient  saints,  and  there  for  many 
a  year  the  tenants  and  dependents  of  the  manor 
assembled  for  divine  service.  Nowhere  in  France 
had  Voltaire  ever  seen  a  church  dedicated  simply 
to  God  ;  it  was  always  to  Our  Lady  of  This  or 
Saint  So-and-so  of  That ;  always  there  was  some 
intermediary  between  the  devout  soul  and  the 
God  of  its  worship.  Not  thus  should  it  be  with 
Voltaire's  church,  built  upon  his  own  estate  to 
minister  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  his  people.  It 
should  be  dedicated  simply  and  without  further 
qualification  to  the  worship  and  service  of  God. 
Furthermore,  it  was  built  and  dedicated,  not 
by  any  ecclesiastical  or  corporate  body,  but  by 

328 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

the  lord  of  that  manor,  the  individual  layman, 
Voltaire. 

This,  I  say,  was  highly  characteristic  and 
significant.  It  gave  terse  and  pointed  expres- 
sion to  Voltaire's  way  of  looking  at  such  things. 
Church  and  theology  were  ignored,  and  the  in- 
dividual soul  was  left  alone  with  its  God.  The 
Protestant  reformers  and  other  free-thinkers  had 
stopped  far  short  of  this.  In  place  of  an  infal- 
lible Church  they  had  left  an  infallible  Book ; 
if  they  rejected  transubstantiation,  they  retained 
as  obligatory  such  doctrines  as  those  of  the  in- 
carnation and  atonement ;  if  they  laughed  at 
the  miracles  of  mediaeval  saints,  they  would 
allow  no  discredit  to  be  thrown  upon  those  of 
the  apostolic  age ;  in  short,  they  left  standing  a 
large  part,  if  not  the  larger  part,  of  the  super- 
natural edifice  within  which  the  religious  mind 
of  Europe  had  so  long  been  sheltered.  But 
Voltaire  regarded  that  whole  supernatural  edi- 
fice as  so  much  rubbish  which  was  impeding  the 
free  development  of  the  human  mind,  and  ought 
as  quickly  as  possible  to  be  torn  to  pieces  and 
cleared  away.  His  emotions  as  well  as  his  rea- 
son were  concerned  in  this  conclusion.  Organ- 
ized Christianity,  as  it  then  existed  in  France, 
was  responsible  for  much  atrocious  injustice, 
and  in  neighbouring  lands  the  Inquisition  still 
existed.    Ecclesiastical  bigotry,  the  prejudice  of 


329 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

ignorance,  whatever  tended  to  hold  people  in 
darkness  and  restrain  them  from  the  free  and 
natural  use  of  their  faculties,  Voltaire  hated  with 
all  the  intensity  of  which  he  was  capable.  He 
summed  it  all  up  in  one  abstract  term  and  per- 
sonified it  as  "  The  Infamous,"  and  the  watch- 
word of  that  life  of  tireless  vigilance  was  "  Crush 
the  Infamous!"  Supernatural  theology  had  too 
often  pressed  into  the  service  of  "  The  Infa- 
mous," and  for  supernatural  theology  Voltaire 
could  find  no  place  in  his  scheme  of  things. 
He  lost  no  chance  of  assailing  it  with  mockery 
and  sarcasm  made  terrible  by  the  earnestness  of 
his  purpose,  until  he  came  in  many  quarters  to 
be  regarded  as  the  most  inveterate  antagonist  the 
Church  had  ever  known. 

Yet  among  the  great  men  of  letters  in  France 
contemporary  with  Voltaire,  the  most  part  went 
immeasurably  farther  than  he,  and  went  in  a 
different  direction  withal,  for  they  denied  the 
reality  of  Religion.  Few  of  them,  indeed,  be- 
lieved in  the  existence  of  God,  or  would  have 
had  anything  to  do  with  building  a  house  of 
worship.  It  is  related  of  David  Hume  that 
when  dining  once  in  a  party  of  eighteen  at  the 
house  of  Baron  d'Holbach,  he  expressed  a 
doubt  as  to  whether  any  person  could  anywhere 
be  found  to  avow  himself  dogmatically  an  athe- 
ist. "  Indeed,  my  dear  sir,"  quoth  the  host, 
"you  are  this  moment  sitting  at  table  with  sev- 
330 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

enteen  such  persons."  Among  that  group  of 
philosophers  were  men  of  great  intelligence  and 
lofty  purpose,  such  as  D'Alembert,  Diderot, 
Helvetius,  Condorcet,  Buffon,  men  with  more 
of  the  real  spirit  of  Christianity  in  their  natures 
than  could  be  found  in  half  the  churches  of 
Christendom.  The  roots  of  their  atheism  were 
emotional  rather  than  philosophical.  It  was 
part  of  the  generous  but  rash  and  superficial 
impatience  with  which  they  disowned  all  con- 
nection whatever  with  a  church  that  had  be- 
come subservient  to  so  much  that  was  bad. 
Their  atheism  was  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  vicious 
policy  which  had  suppressed  Huguenotism  in 
France  ;  it  was  an  early  instance  of  what  has 
since  been  often  observed,  that  materialism  and 
atheism  are  much  more  apt  to  flourish  in  Ro- 
manist than  in  Protestant  countries.  The  form 
of  religion  which  is  already  to  some  extent  puri- 
fied and  rationalized  awakens  no  such  violent 
revulsion  in  free-thinking  minds  as  the  form 
that  is  more  heavily  encumbered  with  remnants 
of  obsolete  primitive  thought.  Moreover,  the 
rationalizing  religion  of  Protestant  countries  is 
commonly  found  in  alliance  with  political  free- 
dom. In  France  under  the  Old  Regime,  the 
Catholic  religion  was  stigmatized  as  an  ally  of 
despotism,  as  well  as  a  congeries  of  absurd  doc- 
trines and  ceremonies.  The  best  minds  felt 
their  common  sense  shocked  by  it  no  less  than 

33"^ 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

their  reason.  No  very  deep  thinking  was  done 
on  the  subject ;  their  treatment  of  it  was  in  gen- 
eral extremely  shallow. 

The  forms  which  religious  sentiment  had  as- 
sumed in  the  Middle  Ages  had  become  unin- 
telligible ;  the  most  highly  endowed  minds  were 
dead  to  the  sublimity  of  Gothic  architecture, 
and  saw  nothing  but  grotesque  folly  in  Dante's 
poetry.  They  seriously  believed  that  religious 
doctrines  and  ecclesiastical  government  were 
originally  elaborate  systems  of  fraud,  devised 
by  sagacious  and  crafty  tyrants  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  enslaving  the  multitude  of  mankind. 
No  discrimination  was  shown.  They  were  as 
ready  to  throw  away  belief  in  God  as  in  the 
miracles  of  St.  Columba,  and  to  scout  at  the 
notion  of  a  future  life  in  the  same  terms  as  those 
in  which  they  denounced  the  forged  donation 
of  Constantine.  The  flippant  ease  with  which 
they  disposed  of  the  greatest  questions,  in  crass 
ignorance  of  the  very  nature  of  the  problem  to 
be  solved,  was  well  illustrated  in  the  remark  of 
the  astronomer  Lalande,  that  he  had  swept  the 
entire  heavens  with  his  telescope  and  found  no 
God  there.  A  similar  instance  of  missing  the 
point  was  furnished  about  fifty  years  ago  by  the 
eminent  physiologist  Moleschott,  when  he  ex- 
claimed, "  No  thought  without  phosphorus," 
and  congratulated  himself  that  he  had  forever 
disposed  of  the  human  soul.    I  am  inclined  to 

33^ 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

think  that  those  are  the  two  remarks  most  co- 
lossal in  their  silliness  that  ever  appeared  in 
print. 

Very  different  in  spirit  was  the  acute  reply  of 
Laplace  when  reminded  by  Napoleon  that  his 
great  treatise  on  the  dynamics  of  the  solar  sys- 
tem contained  no  allusion  to  God.  "  Sire,"  said 
Laplace,  "  I  had  no  need  of  that  hypothesis." 
This  remark  was  profound  in  its  truth,  for  it 
meant  that  in  order  to  give  a  specific  explanation 
of  any  single  group  of  phenomena,  it  will  not  do 
to  appeal  to  divine  action,  which  is  equally  the 
source  of  all  phenomena.  Science  can  deal  only 
with  secondary  causes.  In  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury men  of  science  were  learning  that  such  is 
the  case ;  men  like  Diderot  and  D'Alembert 
had  come  to  realize  it,  and  they  believed  that 
the  logical  result  was  atheism.  This  was  because 
the  only  idea  of  God  which  they  had  ever  been 
taught  to  entertain  was  the  Latin  idea  of  a  God 
remote  from  the  world  and  manifested  only 
through  occasional  interferences  with  the  order 
of  nature.  When  they  dismissed  this  idea  they 
declared  themselves  atheists.  If  they  had  been 
familiar  with  the  Greek  Idea  of  God  as  imma- 
nent in  the  world  and  manifested  at  every  mo- 
ment through  the  orderly  sequence  of  its  phe- 
nomena, their  conclusions  would  doubtless  have 
been  very  different. 

To  these  philosophers  Voltaire's  unshaken 
333 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

theism  seemed  a  mere  bit  of  eccentric  conserva- 
tism. But  along  with  that  queer  and  intensely 
independent  personality  there  went  a  stronger 
intellectual  grasp  and  a  more  calm  intellectual 
vision  than  belonged  to  any  other  Frenchman 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  facts  of  Na- 
ture, despite  the  lifeless  piecemeal  fashion  in 
which  they  were  then  studied,  Voltaire  saw  a 
rational  principle  at  work  which  atheism  could 
in  nowise  account  for.  To  him  the  universe 
seemed  full  of  evidences  of  beneficent  purpose, 
and  more  than  once  he  set  forth  with  eloquence 
and  power  the  famous  argument  from  design, 
which  is  as  old  as  Xenophon's  Memorabilia, 
and  which  received  its  fullest  development  at  the 
hands  of  Paley  and  the  authors  of  the  Bridge- 
water  treatises.  There  is  thus  yet  another  sig- 
nificance added  to  the  little  church  at  Ferney. 
Not  only  was  it  the  sole  church  in  France  dedi- 
cated simply  to  God,  and  not  only  was  its 
builder  a  layman  hostile  to  ecclesiastical  doc- 
trines and  methods,  but  he  was  almost  alone 
among  the  eminent  free-thinkers  of  his  age  and 
country  in  believing  in  God  and  asserting  the 
everlasting  reality  of  religion. 

It  is  therefore  that  I  have  cited  Voltaire  as  a 
kind  of  text  for  the  present  discourse ;  for  it  is 
my  purpose  to  show  that,  apart  from  all  ques- 
tions of  revelation,  the  light  of  nature  affords  us 
suflScient  ground  for  maintaining  that  religion  is 
334 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

fundamentally  true  and  must  endure  forever. 
It  appears  to  me,  moreover,  that  the  material- 
ism of  the  present  day  is  merely  a  tradition 
handed  down  from  the  French  writers  whom 
Voltaire  combated.  When  Moleschott  made  his 
silly  remark  about  phosphorus,  it  was  simply  an 
inheritance  of  silliness  from  Lalande.  When 
Haeckel  tells  us  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
forbids  us  to  believe  in  a  future  life,  it  is  not  be- 
cause he  has  rationally  deduced  such  a  conclu- 
sion from  the  doctrine,  but  because  he  takes  his 
opinion  on  such  matters  ready-made  from  Lud- 
wig  Biichner,  who  is  simply  an  echo  of  the 
eighteenth  century  atheist  La  Mettrie.  We  shall 
see  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has  implica- 
tions very  different  from  what  Haeckel  sup- 
poses. 

But  first  let  me  observe  in  passing  that  in  the 
English-speaking  world  there  has  never  been 
any  such  divorce  between  rationalism  and  reli- 
gion as  in  France,  and  among  the  glories  of 
English  literature  are  such  deeply  reverent  and 
profoundly  philosophical  writings  as  those  of 
Hooker  and  Chillingworth,  of  Bishop  Butler 
and  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  in  our  own  time  of 
Dr.  Martineau.  Nowhere  in  history,  perhaps, 
have  faith  and  reason  been  more  harmoniously 
wedded  together  than  in  the  history  of  English 
Protestantism.  But  the  disturbance  that  affected 
France  in  the  age  of  Voltaire  now  affects  the 

33S 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

whole  Christian  world,  and  every  question  con' 
nected  with  religion  has  been  probed  to  depths 
of  which  the  existence  was  scarcely  suspected  a 
century  ago.  One  seldom,  indeed,  hears  the 
frivolous  mockery  in  which  the  old  French 
writers  dealt  so  freely ;  that  was  an  ebullition 
of  temper  called  forth  by  a  tyranny  that  had 
come  to  be  a  social  nuisance.  The  scepticism  of 
our  day  is  rather  sad  than  frivolous ;  it  drags 
people  from  long-cherished  notions  in  spite  of 
themselves  ;  it  spares  but  few  that  are  active- 
minded  ;  it  invades  the  church,  and  does  not 
stop  in  the  pews  to  listen,  but  ascends  the  pulpit 
and  preaches.  There  is  no  refuge  anywhere  from 
this  doubting  and  testing  spirit  of  the  age.  In 
the  attitude  of  civilized  men  towards  the  world 
in  which  we  live,  the  change  of  front  has  been 
stupendous  ;  the  old  cosmology  has  been  over- 
thrown in  headlong  ruin,  attacks  upon  doctrines 
have  multiplied,  and  rituals,  creeds,  and  Scrip- 
tures are  overhauled  and  criticised,  until  a  young 
generation  grows  up  knowing  nothing  of  the 
sturdy  faith  of  its  grandfathers  save  by  hearsay ; 
for  it  sees  everything  in  heaven  and  earth  called 
upon  to  show  its  credentials. 


33^ 


II 

THE    REIGN    OF    LAW,   AND    THE 
GREEK  IDEA  OF  GOD 

THE  general  effect  of  this  intellectual 
movement  has  been  to  discredit  more 
than  ever  before  the  Latin  idea  of 
God  as  a  power  outside  of  the  course  of  nature 
and  occasionally  interfering  with  it.  In  all  di- 
rections the  process  of  evolution  has  been  dis- 
covered, working  after  similar  methods,  and 
this  has  forced  upon  us  the  belief  in  the  Unity 
of  Nature.  We  are  thus  driven  to  the  Greek 
conception  of  God  as  the  power  working  in  and 
through  nature,  without  interference  or  infrac- 
tion of  law.  The  element  of  chance,  which  some 
atheists  formerly  admitted  into  their  scheme  of 
things,  is  expelled.  Nobody  would  now  waste 
his  time  in  theorizing  about  a  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms.  We  have  so  far  spelled  out 
the  history  of  creation  as  to  see  that  all  has 
been  done  in  strict  accordance  with  law.  The 
method  has  been  the  method  of  evolution,  and 
the  more  we  study  it  the  more  do  we  discern  in 
it  intelligible  coherence.  One  part  of  the  story 
never  gives  the  lie  to  another  part. 
337 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

So  beautiful  is  all  this  orderly  coherence,  so 
satisfying  to  some  of  our  intellectual  needs,  that 
many  minds  are  inclined  to  doubt  if  anything 
more  can  be  said  of  the  universe  than  that  it 
is  a  Reign  of  Law,  an  endless  aggregate  of  co- 
existences and  sequences.  When  we  say  that 
one  star  attracts  another  star,  we  do  not  really 
know  that  there  is  any  pulling  in  the  case ;  all 
we  know  is  that  a  piece  of  cosmical  matter  in 
the  presence  of  another  piece  of  matter  alters 
its  space-relations  in  a  certain  specified  way. 
Among  the  coexistences  and  sequences  there  is 
an  order  which  we  can  detect,  and  a  few  thinkers 
are  inclined  to  maintain  that  this  is  the  whole 
story.  Such  a  state  of  mind,  which  rests  satis- 
fied with  the  mere  content  of  observed  facts, 
without  seeking  to  trace  their  ultimate  implica- 
tions, is  the  characteristic  of  what  Auguste 
Comte  called  Positivism.  It  is  a  more  refined 
phase  of  atheism  than  that  of  the  guests  at 
Baron  d'Holbach's,  but  its  adherents  are  few; 
for  the  impetus  of  modern  scientific  thought 
tends  with  overwhelming  force  towards  the 
conception  of  a  single  First  Cause,  or  Prime 
Mover,  perpetually  manifested  from  moment 
to  moment  in  all  the  Protean  changes  that 
make  up  the  universe.  As  I  have  elsewhere 
sought  to  show,  this  is  practically  identical  with 
the  Athanasian   conception   of  the   immanent 

33^ 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

Deity.*  Modern  men  of  science  often  call  this 
view  of  things  Monism,  but  if  questioned  nar- 
rowly concerning  the  immanent  First  Cause, 
they  reply  with  a  general  disclaimer  of  know- 
ledge, and  thus  entitle  themselves  to  be  called 
by  Huxley's  term  "  Agnostics."  Thirty-five 
years  ago  Spencer,  taking  a  hint  from  Sir  Wil- 
liam Hamilton,  used  the  phrase  "  The  Un- 
knowable "  as  an  equivalent  for  the  immanent 
Deity  considered  per  se ;  but  I  always  avoid 
that  phrase,  for  in  practice  it  invariably  leads  to 
wrong  conceptions,  and  naturally,  since  it  only 
expresses  one  side  of  the  truth.  If  on  the  one 
hand  it  is  impossible  for  the  finite  Mind  to 
fathom  the  Infinite,  on  the  other  hand  it  is 
practically  misleading  to  apply  the  term  Un- 
knowable to  the  Deity  that  is  revealed  in  every 
pulsation  of  the  wondrously  rich  and  beautiful 
life  of  the  Universe.  For  most  persons  no 
amount  of  explanation  will  prevent  the  use  of 
the  word  Unknowable  from  seeming  to  remove 
Deity  to  an  unapproachable  distance,  whereas  the 
Deity  revealed  in  the  process  of  evolution  is  the 
ever  present  God  without  whom  not  a  sparrow 
falls  to  the  ground,  and  whose  voice  is  heard  in 
each  whisper  of  conscience,  even  while  his  splen- 
dour dwells  in  the  white  ray  from  yonder  star 

^   The  Idea  of  God  as  affected  by   Modern  Knowledge. 
See  supra. 


339 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

that  began  its  earthward  flight  while  Abraham's 
shepherds  watched  their  flocks.  It  is  clear  that 
many  persons  have  derived  from  Spencer's  use 
of  the  word  Unknowable  an  impression  that  he 
intends  by  means  of  metaphysics  to  refine  God 
away  into  nothing ;  whereas  he  no  more  cher- 
ishes any  such  intention  than  did  St.  Paul,  when 
he  asked,  "  Who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the 
Lord,  or  who  hath  been  his  counsellor  ?  "  —  no 
more  than  Isaiah  did  when  he  declared  that  even 
as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are 
Jehovah's  ways  higher  than  our  ways  and  his 
thoughts  than  our  thoughts. 


340 


Ill 

WEAKNESS   OF    MATERIALISM 

JUST  here  comes  along  the  materialist  and 
asks  us  some  questions,  tries  to  serve  on 
us  a  kind  of  metaphysical  writ  of  quo  war- 
ranto. If  modern  physics  leads  us  inevitably  to 
the  conception  of  a  single  infinite  Power  mani- 
fested in  all  the  phenomena  of  the  knowable 
Universe,  by  what  authority  do  we  identify  that 
Power  with  the  indwelling  Deity  as  conceived 
by  St.  Athanasius  ?  The  Athanasian  Deity  is 
to  some  extent  fashioned  in  Man's  image ;  he 
is,  to  say  the  least,  like  the  psychical  part  of 
ourselves.  After  making  all  possible  allowances 
for  the  gulf  which  separates  that  which  is  In- 
finite and  Absolute  from  that  which  is  Finite 
and  Relative,  an  essential  kinship  is  asserted 
between  God  and  the  Human  Soul.  By  what 
authority,  our  materialist  will  ask,  do  we  assert 
any  such  kinship  between  the  Human  Soul  and 
the  Power  which  modern  physics  reveals  as  ac- 
tive throughout  the  universe?  Is  it  not  going 
far  beyond  our  knowledge  to  assert  any  such 
kinship?  And  would  it  not  be  more  modest 
and  becoming  in  us  to  simply  designate  this 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

ever  active  universal  Power  by  some  purely 
scientific  term,  such  as  Force  ? 

This  argument  is  to-day  a  very  familiar  one, 
and  it  wears  a  plausible  aspect ;  it  is  couched  in 
a  spirit  of  scientific  reserve,  which  wins  for  it  re- 
spectful consideration.  The  modest  and  cau- 
tious spirit  of  science  has  done  so  much  for  us, 
that  it  is  always  wise  to  give  due  heed  to  its 
warnings.  Let  us  beware  of  going  beyond  our 
knowledge,  says  the  materialist.  We  know  no- 
thing but  phenomena  as  manifestations  of  an 
indwelling  force ;  nor  have  we  any  ground  for 
supposing  that  there  is  anything  psychical,  or 
even  quasi-psychical,  in  the  universe  outside  of 
the  individual  minds  of  men  and  other  animals. 
Moreover,  continues  the  materialist,  the  psychi- 
cal phenomena  of  which  we  are  conscious  — 
reason,  memory,  emotion,  volition  —  are  but 
peculiarly  conditioned  manifestations  of  the 
same  indwelling  force  which  under  other  con- 
ditions appears  as  light  or  heat  or  electricity. 
All  such  manifestations  are  fleeting,  and  beyond 
this  world  of  fleeting  phenomena  we  have  no 
warrant,  either  in  science  or  in  common  sense, 
for  supposing  that  anything  whatever  exists. 
This  world  that  is  cognizable  through  the  senses 
is  all  that  there  is,  and  the  story  of  it  that  we 
can  decipher  by  the  aid  of  terrestrial  experience 
is  the  whole  story  ;  the  Unseen  World  is  a 
mere  figment  inherited  from  the  untutored  fancy 
342 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

of  primeval  man.  Such  is  the  general  view  of 
things  which  Materialism  urges  upon  us  with 
the  plea  of  scientific  sobriety  and  caution  ;  and 
to  many  minds,  as  already  observed,  it  wears  a 
plausible  aspect. 

Nevertheless,  when  subjected  to  criticism,  this 
theory  of  things  soon  loses  its  sober  and  plau- 
sible appearance  and  is  seen  to  be  eminently 
rash  and  shallow.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  no 
such  correlation  or  equivalence  as  is  alleged  be- 
tween physical  forces  and  the  phenomena  of 
consciousness.  The  correlations  between  dif- 
ferent modes  of  motion  have  been  proved  by 
actual  quantitative  measurement,  and  never 
could  have  been  proved  in  any  other  way.  We 
know,  for  example,  that  heat  is  a  mode  of  mo- 
tion ;  the  heat  that  will  raise  the  temperature 
of  a  pound  of  water  by  one  degree  of  Fahren- 
heit is  exactly  equivalent  to  the  motion  of  772 
pounds  falling  through  a  distance  of  one  foot. 
In  similar  wise  we  know  that  light,  electricity, 
and  magnetism  are  modes  of  motion,  transfer- 
able one  into  another ;  and,  although  precise 
measurements  have  not  been  accomplished, 
there  is  no  reason  for  doubting  that  the  changes 
in  brain  tissue,  which  accompany  each  thought 
and  feeling,  are  also  modes  of  motion,  transfera- 
ble into  the  other  physical  modes.  But  thought 
and  feehng  themselves,  which  can  neither  be 
weighed  nor  measured,  do  not  admit  of  being 
343 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

resolved  into  modes  of  motion.  They  do  not 
enter  into  the  closed  circuit  of  physical  trans- 
formations, but  stand  forever  outside  of  it,  and 
concentric  with  that  segment  of  the  circuit  which 
passes  through  the  brain.  It  may  be  that 
thought  and  feeling  could  not  continue  to  exist 
if  that  physical  segment  of  the  circuit  were  taken 
away.  It  may  be  that  they  could.  To  assume 
that  they  could  not  is  surely  the  height  of  rash 
presumption.  The  correlation  offerees  exhibits 
Mind  as  in  no  wise  a  product  of  Matter,  but  as 
something  in  its  growth  and  manifestations  out- 
side and  parallel.  It  is  incompatible  with  the 
theory  that  the  relation  of  the  human  soul  to 
the  body  is  like  that  of  music  to  the  harp  ;  but 
it  is  quite  compatible  with  the  time-honoured 
theory  of  the  human  soul  as  indwelling  in  the 
body  and  escaping  from  it  at  death. 

In  the  second  place,  when  we  come  to  the 
denial  of  all  kinship,  between  the  human  soul 
and  the  Infinite  Power  that  is  revealed  in  all 
phenomena,  the  materialistic  theory  raises  dif- 
ficulties as  great  as  those  which  it  seeks  to  avoid. 
The  difficulties  which  it  wishes  to  avoid  are 
those  which  inevitably  encumber  the  attempt  to 
conceive  of  Deity  as  Personality  exerting  voli- 
tion and  cherishing  intelligent  purpose.  Such 
difficulties  are  undeniably  great;  nay,  they  are 
insuperable.  When  we  speak  of  Intelligence 
and  Will  and  Personality,  we  must  use  these 
344 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

words  with  the  meanings  in  which  experience 
has  clothed  them,  or  we  shall  soon  find  our- 
selves talking  nonsense.  The  only  intelligence 
we  know  is  strictly  serial  in  its  nature,  and  is 
limited  by  the  existence  of  independent  objects 
of  cognition.  What  flight  of  analogy  can  bear 
us  across  the  gulf  that  divides  such  finite  intel- 
ligence from  that  unlimited  Knowledge  to  which 
all  things  past  and  future  are  ever  present? 
Volition,  as  we  know  it,  implies  alternative 
courses  of  action,  antecedent  motives,  and  re- 
sulting effort.  Like  intelligence,  its  operations 
are  serial.  What,  then,  do  we  really  mean,  if  we 
speak  of  omnipresent  Volition  achieving  at  one 
and  the  same  moment  an  infinite  variety  of 
ends  ?  So,  too,  with  Personality  :  when  we 
speak  of  personality  that  is  not  circumscribed 
by  limits,  are  we  not  using  language  from  which 
all  the  meaning  has  evaporated  ? 

Such  difficulties  are  insurmountable.  Words 
which  have  gained  their  meanings  from  finite 
experience  of  finite  objects  of  thought  must 
inevitably  falter  and  fail  when  we  seek  to  apply 
them  to  that  which  is  Infinite.  But  we  do  not 
mend  matters  by  employing  terms  taken  from 
the  inorganic  world  rather  than  from  human 
personality.  To  designate  the  universal  Power 
by  some  scientific  term,  such  as  Force,  does  not 
help  us  in  the  least.  All  our  experience  offeree 
is  an  experience  of  finite  forces  antagonized  by 

345 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

other  forces.  We  can  frame  no  conception 
whatever  of  Infinite  Force  comprising  within 
itself  all  the  myriad  antagonistic  attractions  and 
repulsions  in  which  the  dynamic  universe  con- 
sists. We  go  beyond  our  knowledge  when  we 
speak  of  Infinite  Force  quite  as  much  as  we  do 
when  we  speak  of  Infinite  Personality.  Indeed, 
no  word  or  phrase  which  we  seek  to  apply  to 
Deity  can  be  other  than  an  extremely  inade- 
quate and  unsatisfactory  symbol.  From  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  it  must  always  be  so, 
and  if  we  once  understand  the  reason  why,  it 
need  not  vex  or  puzzle  us. 

It  is  not  only  when  we  try  to  speculate  about 
Deity  that  we  find  ourselves  encompassed  with 
difficulties  and  are  made  to  realize  how  very 
short  is  our  mental  tether  in  some  directions. 
This  world,  in  its  commonest  aspects,  presents 
many  baffling  problems,  of  which  it  is  some- 
times wholesome  that  we  should  be  reminded. 
If  you  look  at  a  piece  of  iron,  it  seems  solid  ; 
it  looks  as  if  its  particles  must  be  everywhere 
in  contact  with  one  another.  And  yet,  by 
hammering,  or  by  great  pressure,  or  by  intense 
cold,  the  piece  of  iron  may  be  compressed,  so 
that  it  will  occupy  less  space  than  before.  Evi- 
dently, then,  its  particles  are  not  in  contact,  but 
are  separated  from  one  another  by  unoccu- 
pied tracts  of  enveloping  space.  In  point  of 
fact,  these  particles  are  atoms  arranged  after  a 
346 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

complicated  fashion  in  clusters  known  as  mole- 
cules. The  word  atom  means  something  that 
cannot  be  cut.  Now,  are  these  iron  atoms  di- 
visible or  indivisible  ?  If  they  are  divisible, 
then  what  of  the  parts  into  which  each  one  can 
be  divided  ;  are  they  also  divisible  ?  and  so  on 
forever.  But  if  these  iron  atoms  are  indivisible, 
how  can  we  conceive  such  a  thing  ?  Can  we 
imagine  two  sides  so  close  together  that  no 
plane  of  cleavage  could  pass  between  them  ? 
Can  we  imagine  cohesive  tenacity  too  great  to 
be  overcome  by  any  assignable  disruptive  force, 
and  therefore  infinite  ?  Suppose,  now,  we  heat 
this  piece  of  iron  to  a  white  heat.  Scientific  in- 
quiry has  revealed  the  fact  that  its  atom-clusters 
are  floating  in  an  ocean  of  ether,  in  which  are 
also  floating  the  atom-clusters  of  other  bodies 
and  of  the  air  about  us.  The  heating  is  the 
increase  of  wave-motion  in  this  ether,  until 
presently  a  secondary  series  of  intensely  rapid 
waves  appear  as  white  light.  Now  this  ether 
would  seem  to  be  of  infinite  rarity,  since  it  does 
not  affect  the  weight  of  bodies,  and  yet  its  wave- 
motions  imply  an  elasticity  far  greater  than  that 
of  coiled  steel.  How  can  we  imagine  such  pow- 
erful resilience  combined  with  such  extreme 
tenuity  ? 

These   are   a  few  of  the  difficulties  of  con- 
ception in  which  the  study  of  physical  science 
abounds,  and  I   cite  them  because  it  is  whole- 
347 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

some  for  us  to  bear  in  mind  that  such  difficul- 
ties are  not  confined  to  theological  subjects. 
They  serve  to  show  how  our  powers  of  conceiv- 
ing ideas  are  strictly  limited  by  the  nature  of 
our  experience.  The  illustration  just  cited  from 
the  luminiferous  ether  simply  shows  how  during 
the  past  century  the  study  of  radiant  forces  has 
introduced  us  to  a  mode  of  material  existence 
quite  different  from  anything  that  had  formerly 
been  known  or  suspected.  In  this  mode  of 
matter  we  find  attributes  united  which  all  pre- 
vious experience  had  taught  us  to  regard  as 
contradictory  and  incompatible.  Yet  the  facts 
cannot  be  denied ;  hard  as  we  may  find  it  to 
frame  the  conception,  this  light-bearing  sub- 
stance is  at  the  same  time  almost  infinitely  rare 
and  almost  infinitely  resilient.  If  such  difficul- 
ties confront  us  upon  the  occasion  of  a  fresh 
extension  of  our  knowledge  of  the  physical 
world,  what  must  we  expect  when  we  come  to 
speculate  upon  the  nature  and  modes  of  exist- 
ence of  God  ?  Bearing  this  in  mind,  let  us  pro- 
ceed to  consider  the  assumption  that  the  Infi- 
nite Power  which  is  manifested  in  the  universe 
is  essentially  psychical  in  its  nature ;  in  other 
words,  that  between  God  and  the  Human  Soul 
there  is  real  kinship,  although  we  may  be  un- 
able to  render  any  scientific  account  of  it.  Let 
us  consider  this  assumption  historically,  and  in 
the  light  of  our  general  knowledge  of  Evolution, 
348 


IV 


RELIGION'S      FIRST      POSTULATE: 
THE   QUASI-HUMAN    GOD 

IT  is  with  purpose  that  I  use  the  word  as- 
sumption.  As  a  matter  of  history,  the  ex- 
istence of  a  quasi-human  God  has  always 
been  an  assumption  or  postulate.  It  is  some- 
thing which  men  have  all  along  taken  for 
granted.  It  probably  never  occurred  to  any- 
body to  try  to  prove  the  existence  of  such  a 
God  until  it  was  doubted,  and  doubts  on  that 
subject  are  very  modern.  Omitting  from  the 
account  a  few  score  of  ingenious  philosophers, 
it  may  be  said  that  all  mankind,  the  wisest  and 
the  simplest,  have  taken  for  granted  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Deity,  or  deities,  of  a  psychical  nature 
more  or  less  similar  to  that  of  Humanity.  Such 
a  postulate  has  formed  a  part  of  all  human  think- 
ing from  primitive  ages  down  to  the  present 
time.  The  forms  in  which  it  has  appeared  have 
been  myriad  in  number,  but  all  have  been  in- 
cluded in  this  same  fundamental  assumption. 
The  earliest  forms  were  those  which  we  call 
fetichism  and  animism.  In  fetichism  the  wind 
that  blows  a  tree  down  is  endowed  with  person- 
349 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

ality  and  supposed  to  exert  conscious  effort ;  in 
animism  some  ghost  of  a  dead  man  is  animating 
that  gust  of  wind.  In  either  case  a  conscious 
volition  similar  to  our  own,  but  outside  of  us, 
is  supposed  to  be  at  work.  There  has  been 
some  discussion  as  to  whether  fetichism  or  an- 
imism is  the  more  primitive,  and  some  writers 
would  regard  fetichism  as  a  special  case  of  an- 
imism ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  my  present 
purpose  that  such  questions  should  be  settled. 
The  main  point  is  this,  that  in  the  earliest 
phases  of  theism  each  operation  of  Nature  was 
supposed  to  have  some  quasi-human  person- 
ality behind  it.  Such  phases  we  find  among 
contemporary  savages,  and  there  is  abundant 
evidence  of  their  former  existence  among  peo- 
ples now  civilized.  In  the  course  of  ages  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  generalizing  done.  Poseidon 
could  shake  the  land  and  preside  over  the  sea, 
angry  Apollo  could  shoot  arrows  tipped  with 
pestilence,  mischievous  Hermes  could  play 
pranks  in  the  summer  breezes,  while  as  lord 
over  all,  though  with  somewhat  fitful  sway, 
stood  Zeus  on  the  summit  of  Olympus,  gather- 
ing the  rain-clouds  and  wielding  the  thunder- 
bolt. Nothing  but  increasing  knowledge  of 
Nature  was  needed  to  convert  such  Polytheism 
into  Monotheism,  even  into  the  strict  Mono- 
theism of  our  own  time,  in  which  the  whole 
universe  is  the  multiform  manifestation  of  a 
3SO 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

single  Deity  that  is  still  regarded  as  in  some 
real  and  true  sense  quasi-human.  As  the  notion 
of  Deity  has  thus  been  gradually  generalized, 
from  a  thousand  local  gods  to  one  omnipresent 
God,  it  has  been  gradually  stripped  of  its 
grosser  anthropomorphic  vestments.  The  tute- 
lar Deity  of  a  savage  clan  is  supposed  to  share 
with  his  devout  worshippers  in  the  cannibal 
banquet ;  the  Gods  of  Olympus  made  war  and 
love,  and  were  moved  to  fits  of  inextinguish- 
able laughter.  From  our  modern  Monotheism 
such  accidents  of  humanity  are  eliminated,  but 
the  notion  of  a  kinship  between  God  and  man 
remains,  and  is  rightly  felt  to  be  essential  to 
theism.  Take  away  from  our  notion  of  God 
the  human  element,  and  the  theism  instantly 
vanishes  ;  it  ceases  to  be  a  notion  of  God.  We 
may  retain  an  abstract  symbol  to  which  we  ap- 
ply some  such  epithet  as  Force,  or  Energy,  or 
Power,  but  there  is  nothing  theistic  in  this. 
Some  ingenious  philosopher  may  try  to  persuade 
us  to  the  contrary,  but  the  Human  Soul  knows 
better ;  it  knows  at  least  what  it  wants  ;  it  has 
asked  for  Theology,  not  for  Dynamics,  and  it 
resents  all  such  attempts  to  palm  off  upon  it 
stones  for  bread. 

Our  philosopher  will  here  perhaps  lift  up  his 
hands  in  dismay  and  cry,  "  Hold  !  what  mat- 
ters it  what  the  Human  Soul  wants  ?  Are  crav- 
ings, forsooth,  to  be  made  to  do  duty  as  rea- 

35^ 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

sons  ?  "  It  Is  proper  to  reply  that  we  are  trying 
to  deal  with  this  whole  subject  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  naturalist,  which  is  to  describe  things 
as  they  exist  and  account  for  them  as  best  we 
may.  I  say,  then,  that  mankind  have  framed, 
and  for  long  ages  maintained,  a  notion  of  God 
into  which  there  enters  a  human  element.  Now 
if  it  should  ever  be  possible  to  abolish  that  hu- 
man element,  it  would  not  be  possible  to  cheat 
mankind  into  accepting  the  non-human  rem- 
nant of  the  notion  as  an  equivalent  of  the  full 
notion  of  which  they  had  been  deprived.  Take 
away  from  our  symbolic  conception  of  God  the 
human  element,  and  that  aspect  of  theism  which 
has  from  the  outset  chiefly  interested  mankind 
is  gone 


3S^ 


RELIGION'S  SECOND  POSTULATE: 
THE  UNDYING  HUMAN  SOUL 


THAT  supremely  interesting  aspect  of 
theism  belongs  to  it  as  part  and  parcel 
of  the  general  belief  in  an  Unseen 
World,  in  which  human  beings  have  an  inter- 
est. The  belief  in  the  personal  continuance  of 
the  individual  human  soul  after  death  is  a  very 
ancient  one.  The  savage  custom  of  burying 
utensils  and  trinkets  for  the  use  of  the  deceased 
enables  us  to  trace  it  back  into  the  Glacial 
Period.  We  may  safely  say  that  for  much  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  years  mankind  have 
regarded  themselves  as  personally  interested  in 
two  worlds,  the  physical  world  which  daily 
greets  our  waking  senses,  and  another  world, 
comparatively  dim  and  vaguely  outlined,  with 
which  the  psychical  side  of  humanity  is  more 
closely  connected.  The  belief  in  the  Unseen 
World  seems  to  be  coextensive  with  theism ; 
the  animism  of  the  lowest  savages  includes  both. 
No  race  or  tribe  of  men  has  ever  been  found 
destitute  of  the  belief  in  a  ghost-world.  Now, 
a  ghost-world  implies  the  personal  continuance 
3  S3 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

of  human  beings  after  death,  and  it  also  implies 
identity  of  nature  between  the  ghosts  of  man 
and  the  indwelling  spirits  of  sun,  wind,  and 
flood.  It  is  chiefly  because  these  ideas  are  so 
closely  interwoven  in  savage  thought  that  it  is 
often  so  difficult  to  discriminate  between  fetich- 
ism  and  animism.  These  savage  ideas  are  of 
course  extremely  crude  in  their  symbolism.  With 
the  gradual  civilization  of  human  thinking,  the 
refinement  in  the  conception  of  the  Deity  is 
paralleled  by  the  refinement  in  the  conception 
of  the  Other  World.  From  Valhalla  to  Dante's 
Paradise,  what  an  immeasurable  distance  the 
human  mind  has  travelled  !  In  our  modern 
Monotheism  the  assumption  of  kinship  between 
God  and  the  Human  Soul  is  the  assumption 
that  there  is  in  Man  a  psychical  element  identi- 
cal in  nature  with  that  which  is  eternal.  Belief 
in  a  quasi-human  God  and  belief  in  the  Soul's 
immortality  thus  appear  in  their  origin  and  de- 
velopment, as  in  their  ultimate  significance,  to 
be  inseparably  connected.  They  are  part  and 
parcel  of  one  and  the  same  efflorescence  of  the 
human  mind.  Mankind  has  always  entertained 
them  in  common,  and  so  entertains  them  now; 
and  were  it  possible  (which  it  is  not)  for  science 
to  disprove  the  Soul's  immortality,  a  theism 
deprived  of  this  element  would  surely  never  be 
accepted  as  an  equivalent  for  the  theism  enter- 
tained befofe.  The  Positivist  argument  that 
354 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

the  only  worthy  immortality  is  survival  in  the 
grateful  remembrance  of  one's  fellow-creatures 
would  hardly  be  regarded  as  anything  but  a 
travesty  and  trick.  If  the  world's  long-cherished 
beliefs  are  to  fall,  in  God's  name  let  them  fall, 
but  save  us  from  the  intellectual  hypocrisy  that 
goes  about  pretending  we  are  none  the  poorer  I 


3S5 


VI 

RELIGION'S  THIRD  POSTULATE: 
THE  ETHICAL  SIGNIFICANCE  OF 
THE   UNSEEN   WORLD 

OUR  account  of  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  general  belief  in  an  Unseen  World 
is,  however,  not  yet  complete.  No 
mention  has  been  made  of  an  element  which 
apparently  has  always  been  present  in  the  belief. 
I  mean  the  ethical  element.  The  savage's  pri- 
meval ghost-world  is  always  mixed  up  with  his 
childlike  notions  of  what  he  ought  to  do  and 
what  he  ought  not  to  do.  The  native  of  Tierra 
del  Fuego,  who  foreboded  a  snowstorm  because 
one  of  Mr.  Darwin's  party  killed  some  birds 
for  specimens,  furnishes  an  excellent  illustration. 
In  a  tribe  Hving  always  on  the  brink  of  starva- 
tion, any  wanton  sacrifice  of  meat  must  awaken 
the  wrath  of  the  tutelar  ancestral  ghost-deities 
who  control  the  weather.  Notions  of  a  similar 
sort  are  connected  with  the  direful  host  of  omens 
that  dog  the  savage's  footsteps  through  the 
world.  Whatever  conduct  the  necessities  of 
clan  or  tribe  have  prohibited  soon  comes  to 
wear  the  aspect  of  sacrilege. 

Thus  inextricably  intertwined  from  the  mo- 

3S^ 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

ment  of  their  first  dim  dawning  upon  the  con- 
sciousness of  nascent  Humanity,  have  been  the 
notion  of  Deity,  the  notion  of  an  Unseen  World, 
and  the  notions  of  Right  and  Wrong.    In  their 
beginnings   theology  and    ethics  were    insepa- 
rable ;  in  all   the  vast  historic  development  of 
religion  they  have  remained  inseparable.    The 
grotesque  conceptions  of  primitive   men   have 
given  place  to  conceptions  framed  after  wider 
and  deeper  experience,  but  the  union  of  ethics 
with  theology  remains  undisturbed  even  in  that 
most  refined   religious  philosophy  which  ven- 
tures no  opinion  concerning  the  happiness  or 
misery  of  a  future  life,  except  that  the  seed  sown 
here  will   naturally  determine  the   fruit   to   be 
gathered  hereafter.  All  the  analogies  that  modern 
knowledge  can  bring  to  bear  upon  the  theory  of 
a  future  life  point  to  the  opinion  that  the  breach 
of  physical  continuity  is  not  accompanied  by  any 
breach  of  ethical   continuity.    Such  an   opinion 
relating  to  matters  beyond   experience  cannot 
of  course  be  called  scientific,  but  whether  it  be 
justifiable  or  not,  my  point  is  that   neither   in 
the  crude  fancies  of  primitive  men   nor  in   the 
most  refined   modern  philosophy  can   theology 
divorce  itself  from  ethics.   Take  away  the  ethical 
significance  from  our  conceptions  of  the  Unseen 
World  and  the  quasi-human  God,  and  no  ele- 
ment of  significance  remains.    All  that  was  vital 
in  theism  is  gone. 

357 


VII 

IS  THE  SUBSTANCE  OF  RELIGION 
A  PHANTOM,  OR  AN  ETERNAL 
REALITY? 

WE  are  now  prepared  to  see  what  is 
involved  in  the  Reality  of  Religion. 
Speaking  historically,  it  may  be  said 
that  Religion  has  always  had  two  sides :  on  the 
one  side  it  has  consisted  of  a  theory,  more  or 
less  elaborate,  and  on  the  other  side  it  has  con- 
sisted of  a  group  of  sentiments  conformable  to 
the  theory.  Now  in  all  ages  and  in  every  form 
of  Religion,  the  theory  has  comprised  three  es- 
sential elements  :  first,  belief  in  Deity,  as  quasi- 
human  ;  secondly,  belief  in  an  Unseen  World 
in  which  human  beings  continue  to  exist  after 
death  ;  thirdly,  recognition  of  the  ethical  aspects 
of  human  life  as  related  in  a  special  and  intimate 
sense  to  this  Unseen  World.  These  three  ele- 
ments are  alike  indispensable.  If  any  one  of 
the  three  be  taken  away,  the  remnant  cannot 
properly  be  called  Religion.  Is  then  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  Religion  something  real  and  sub- 
stantial, or  is  it  a  mere  figment  of  the  imagina- 
tion ?  Has  Religion  through  all  these  weary 
3S^ 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

centuries  been  dealing  with  an  eternal  verity,  or 
has  it  been  blindly  groping  after  a  phantom  ? 
Can  that  history  of  the  universe  which  we  call 
the  Doctrine  of  Evolution  be  made  to  furnish 
any  lesson  that  will  prove  helpful  in  answering 
this  question  ?  We  shall  find,  I  think,  that  it 
does  furnish  such  a  lesson. 

But  first  let  us  remember  that  along  with  the 
three  indispensable  elements  here  specified, 
every  historic  Religion  has  also  contained  a 
quantity  of  cosmological  speculations,  metaphy- 
sical doctrines,  priestly  rites  and  ceremonies  and 
injunctions,  and  a  very  considerable  part  of  this 
structure  has  been  demolished  by  modern  criti- 
cism. The  destruction  of  beliefs  has  been  so 
great  that  we  can  hardly  think  it  strange  if  some 
critics  have  taken  it  into  their  heads  that  nothing 
can  be  rescued.  But  let  us  see  what  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  has  to  say.  Our  inquiry  may  seem 
to  take  us  very  far  afield,  but  that  we  need  not 
mind  if  we  find  the  answer  by  and  by  directing 
us  homeward. 


359 


V 


\  VIII 

THE   FUNDAMENTAL  ASPECT 
OF  LIFE 

I  OFTEN  think,  when  working  over  my 
plants,  of  what  Linnaeus  once  said  of  the 
unfolding  of  a  blossom :  "  I  saw  God  in 
His  glory  passing  near  me,  and  bowed  my  head 
in  worship."  The  scientific  aspect  of  the  same 
thought  has  been  put  into  words  by  Tenny- 
son: — 

**  Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies, 
I  hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand. 
Little  flower,  —  but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 


No  deeper  thought  was  ever  uttered  by  poet. 
For  in  this  world  of  plants,  which  with  its  ma- 
gician chlorophyll  conjuring  with  sunbeams  is 
ceaselessly  at  work  bringing  life  out  of  death, — 
in  this  quiet  vegetable  world  we  may  find  the 
elementary  principles  of  all  life  in  almost  visi- 
ble operation.  It  is  one  of  these  elementary 
principles  —  a  very  simple  and  broad  one  — 
that  here  concerns  us.  - 

360         ^1 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

One  of  the  greatest  contributions  ever  made 
to  scientific  knowledge  is  Herbert  Spencer's 
profound  and  luminous  exposition  of  Life  as 
the  continuous  adjustment  of  inner  relations  to 
outer  relations.  The  extreme  simplicity  of  the 
subject  in  its  earliest  illustrations  is  such  that 
the  student  at  first  hardly  suspects  the  wealth 
of  knowledge  toward  which  it  is  pointing  the 
way.  The  most  fundamental  characteristic  of 
living  things  is  their  response  to  external  stim- 
uli. If  you  come  upon  a  dog  lying  by  the  road- 
side and  are  in  doubt  whether  he  is  alive  or 
dead,  you  poke  him  with  a  stick ;  if  you  get  no 
response  you  presently  conclude  that  it  is  a  dead 
dog.  So  if  the  tree  fails  to  put  forth  leaves  in 
response  to  the  rising  vernal  temperature,  it  is 
an  indication  of  death.  Pour  water  on  a  droop- 
ing plant,  and  it  shows  its  life  by  rearing  its 
head.  The  growth  of  a  plant  is  in  its  ultimate 
analysis  a  group  of  motions  put  forth  in  ad- 
justment to  a  group  of  physical  and  chemical 
conditions  in  the  soil  and  atmosphere.  A  fine 
illustration  is  the  spiral  distribution  of  leaves 
about  the  stem,  at  different  angular  intervals  in 
different  kinds  of  plants,  but  always  so  arranged 
as  to  ensure  the  most  complete  exposure  of  the 
chlorophyll  to  the  sunbeams.  Every  feature  of 
the  plant  is  explicable  on  similar  principles.  It 
is  the  result  of  a  continuous  adjustment  of  rela- 
tions within  the  plant  to  relations  existing  out' 
361 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

side  of  it.  It  is  important  that  we  should  form  a 
clear  conception  of  this,  and  a  contrasted  instance 
will  help  us.  Take  one  of  those  storm-glasses 
in  which  the  approach  of  atmospheric  disturbance 
sets  up  a  feathery  crystallization  that  changes  in 
shape  and  distribution  as  the  state  of  the  air 
outside  changes.  Here  is  something  that  sim- 
ulates vegetable  life,  but  there  is  a  profound 
difference.  In  every  one  of  these  changes 
the  liquid  in  the  storm-glass  is  passive ;  it  is 
changed  and  waits  until  it  is  changed  again. 
But  in  the  case  of  a  tree,  when  the  increased 
supply  of  solar  radiance  in  spring  causes  those 
internal  motions  which  result  in  the  putting 
forth  of  leaves,  it  is  quite  another  affair.  Here 
the  external  change  sets  up  an  internal  change 
which  leads  to  a  second  internal  change  that  an- 
ticipates a  second  external  change.  It  is  this 
active  response  that  is  the  mark  of  life. 

All  life  upon  the  globe,  whether  physical  or 
psychical,  represents  the  continuous  adjustment 
of  inner  to  outer  relations.  The  degree  of  life 
is  low  or  high,  according  as  the  correspondence 
between  internal  and  external  relations  is  simple 
or  complex,  limited  or  extensive,  partial  or  com- 
plete, perfect  or  imperfect.  The  relations  estab- 
lished within  a  plant  answer  only  to  the  presence 
or  absence  of  a  certain  quantity  of  light  and 
heat,  and  to  sundry  chemical  and  physical  rela- 
tions in  atmosphere  and  soil.  In  a  polyp,  be- 
362 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

sides  general  relations  similar  to  these,  certain 
more  special  relations  are  established  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  eternal  existence  of  mechan- 
ical irritants  ;  as  when  its  tentacles  contract  on 
being  touched.  The  increase  of  extension  ac- 
quired by  the  correspondences  as  we  ascend  the 
animal  scale  may  be  seen  by  contrasting  the 
polyp,  which  can  simply  distinguish  between 
soluble  and  insoluble  matter,  or  between  opa- 
city and  translucence  in  its  environment,  with 
the  keen-scented  bloodhound  and  the  far-sighted 
vulture.  And  the  increase  of  complexity  may 
be  appreciated  by  comparing  the  motions  re- 
spectively gone  through  by  the  polyp  on  the 
one  hand,  and  by  the  dog  and  vulture  on  the 
other,  while  securing  and  disposing  of  their 
prey.  The  more  specific  and  accurate,  the  more 
complex  and  extensive,  is  the  response  to  envi- 
roning relations,  the  higher  and  richer,  we  say, 
is  the  life. 


3^3 


IX 


HOW  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SENSES 
EXPANDS   THE   WORLD 

THE  whole  progression  of  life  upon  the 
globe,  in  so  far  as  it  has  been  achieved 
through  natural  selection,  has  con- 
sisted in  the  preservation  and  the  propagation 
of  those  living  creatures  in  whom  the  adjustment 
of  inner  relations  to  outer  relations  is  most  suc- 
cessful. This  is  only  a  more  detailed  and  de- 
scriptive way  of  saying  that  natural  selection  is 
equivalent  to  survival  of  the  fittest.  The  shapes 
of  animals,  as  well  as  their  capacities,  have  been 
evolved  through  almost  infinitely  slow  incre- 
ments of  adjustment  upon  adjustment.  In  this 
way,  for  instance,  has  been  evolved  the  verte- 
brate skeleton,  through  a  process  of  which  Spen- 
cer's wonderful  analysis  is  as  thrilling  as  a  poem. 
Or  consider  the  development  of  the  special  or- 
gans of  sense.  Among  the  most  startling  dis- 
closures of  embryology  are  those  which  relate  to 
this  subject.  The  most  perfect  organs  of  touch 
are  the  vibrissa  or  whiskers  of  the  cat,  which 
act  as  long  levers  in  communicating  impulses  to 
the  nerve-fibres  that  terminate  in  clusters  about 
364 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

the  dermal  sacs  in  which  they  are  inserted. 
These  cat-whiskers  are  merely  specialized  forms 
of  such  hairs  as  those  which  cover  the  bodies  of 
most  mammals,  and  which  remain  in  evanescent 
shape  upon  the  human  skin  imbedded  in  mi- 
nute sacs.  Now  in  their  origin  the  eye  and  ear 
are  identical  with  vibrisst^e.  In  the  early  stages 
of  vertebrate  life,  while  the  differentiations  of 
dermal  tissue  went  mostly  to  the  production  of 
hairs  or  feathers  or  scales,  sundry  special  differ- 
entiations went  to  the  production  of  ears  and 
eyes.  Embryology  shows  that  in  mammals  the 
bulb  of  the  eye  and  the  auditory  chamber  are 
extremely  metamorphosed  hair-sacs,  the  crys- 
talline lens  is  a  differentiated  hair,  and  the  aque- 
ous and  vitreous  humours  are  liquefied  dermal 
tissue  !  The  implication  of  these  wonderful  facts 
is  that  sight  and  hearing  were  slowly  differen- 
tiated from  the  sense  of  touch.  One  can  seem 
to  discern  how  in  the  history  of  the  eye  there 
was  at  first  a  concentration  of  pigment  grains  in 
a  particular  dermal  sac,  making  that  spot  excep- 
tionally sensitive  to  light ;  then  came  by  slow 
degrees  the  heightened  translucence,  the  con- 
vexity of  surface,  the  refracting  humours,  and 
the  multiplication  of  nerve-vesicles  arranging 
themselves  as  retinal  rods.  And  what  was  the 
result  of  all  this  for  the  creature  in  whom  or- 
gans of  vision  were  thus  developed  ?  There  was 
an  immense  extension  of  the  range,  complexity, 

365 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

and  definiteness  of  the  adjustment  of  inner  rela- 
tions to  outer  relations  ;  in  other  words,  there 
was  an  immense  increase  of  life.  There  came  into 
existence,  moreover,  for  those  with  eyes  to  see 
it,  a  mighty  visible  world  that  for  sightless  crea- 
tures had  been  virtually  non-existent. 

With  the  further  progress  of  organic  life,  the 
high  development  of  the  senses  was  attended 
or  followed  by  increase  of  brain  development 
and  the  correlative  intelligence,  immeasurably 
enlarging  the  scope  of  the  correspondences  be- 
tween the  living  creature  and  the  outer  world. 
In  the  case  of  Man,  the  adjustments  by  which 
we  meet  the  exigencies  of  life  from  day  to  day 
are  largely  psychical,  achieved  by  the  aid  of 
ideal  representations  of  environing  circum- 
stances. Our  actions  are  guided  by  our  theory 
of  the  situation,  and  it  needs  no  illustration  to 
show  us  that  a  true  theory  is  an  adjustment  of 
one's  ideas  to  the  external  facts,  and  that  such 
adjustments  are  helps  to  successful  living.  The 
whole  worth  of  education  is  directed  toward 
cultivating  the  capacity  of  framing  associations 
of  ideas  that  conform  to  objective  facts.  It  is 
thus  that  life  is  guided. 


3^6 


NATURE'S  ETERNAL  LESSON  IS 
THE  EVERLASTING  REALITY 
OF    RELIGION 

SO  as  we  look  back  over  the  marvellous 
life-history  of  our  planet,  even  from  the 
dull  time  when  there  was  no  life  more 
exalted  than  that  of  conferva  scum  on  the  sur- 
face of  a  pool,  through  ages  innumerable  until 
the  present  time  when  Man  is  learning  how  to 
decipher  Nature's  secrets,  we  look  back  over 
an  infinitely  slow  series  of  minute  adjustments, 
gradually  and  laboriously  increasing  the  points 
of  contact  between  the  inner  Life  and  the 
World  environing.  Step  by  step  in  the  upward 
advance  toward  Humanity  the  environment  has 
enlarged.  The  world  of  the  fresh-water  alga 
was  its  tiny  pool  during  its  brief  term  of  exist- 
ence; the  world  of  civilized  man  comprehends 
the  stellar  universe  during  countless  asons  of 
time.  Every  stage  of  enlargement  has  had 
reference  to  actual  existences  outside.  The 
eye  was  developed  in  response  to  the  outward 
existence  of  radiant  light,  the  ear  in  response  to 
the  outward  existence  of  acoustic  vibrations,  the 
367 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

mother's  love  came  in  response  to  the  infant's 
needs,  fidelity  and  honour  were  slowly  developed 
as  the  nascent  social  life  required  them ;  every- 
where the  internal  adjustment  has  been  brought 
about  so  as  to  harmonize  with  some  actually 
existing  external  fact.  Such  has  been  Nature's 
method,  such  is  the  deepest  law  of  life  that  sci- 
ence has  been  able  to  detect. 

Now  there  was  a  critical  moment  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  planet,  when  love  was  beginning  to 
play  a  part  hitherto  unknown,  when  notions  of 
right  and  wrong  were  germinating  in  the  nas- 
cent Human  Soul,  when  the  family  was  coming 
into  existence,  when  social  ties  were  beginning 
to  be  knit,  when  winged  words  first  took  their 
flight  through  the  air.  It  was  the  moment  when 
the  process  of  evolution  was  being  shifted  to  a 
higher  plane,  when  civilization  was  to  be  super- 
added to  organic  evolution,  when  the  last  and 
highest  of  creatures  was  coming  upon  the  scene, 
when  the  dramatic  purpose  of  creation  was  ap- 
proaching fulfilment.  At  that  critical  moment 
we  see  the  nascent  Human  Soul  vaguely  reach- 
ing forth  toward  something  akin  to  itself  not  in 
the  realm  of  fleeting  phenomena  but  in  the 
Eternal  Presence  beyond.  An  internal  adjust- 
ment of  ideas  was  achieved  in  correspondence 
with  an  Unseen  World.  That  the  ideas  were 
very  crude  and  childlike,  that  they  were  put 
together  with  all  manner  of  grotesqueness,  is 
368 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

what  might  be  expected.  The  cardinal  fact  is 
that  the  crude  childlike  mind  was  groping  to 
put  itself  into  relation  with  an  ethical  world  not 
visible  to  the  senses.  And  one  aspect  of  this 
fact,  not  to  be  lightly  passed  over,  is  the  fact 
that  Religion,  thus  ushered  upon  the  scene 
coeval  with  the  birth  of  Humanity,  has  played 
such  a  dominant  part  in  the  subsequent  evolu- 
tion of  human  society  that  what  history  would 
be  without  it  is  quite  beyond  imagination.  As 
to  the  dimensions  of  this  cardinal  fact  there 
can  thus  be  no  question.  None  can  deny  that 
it  is  the  largest  and  most  ubiquitous  fact  con- 
nected with  the  existence  of  mankind  upon  the 
earth. 

Now  if  the  relation  thus  established  in  the 
morning  twilight  of  Man's  existence  between 
the  Human  Soul  and  a  world  invisible  and 
immaterial  is  a  relation  of  which  only  the  sub- 
jective term  is  real  and  the  objective  term  is 
non-existent,  then,  I  say,  it  is  something  utterly 
without  precedent  in  the  whole  history  of  cre- 
ation. All  the  analogies  of  Evolution,  so  far  as 
we  have  yet  been  able  to  decipher  it,  are  over- 
whelming against  any  such  supposition.  To 
suppose  that  during  countless  ages,  from  the 
seaweed  up  to  Man,  the  progress  of  life  was 
achieved  through  adjustments  to  external  reali- 
ties, but  that  then  the  method  was  all  at  once 
changed  and  throughout  avast  province  of  evo- 
Z^9 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

lution  the  end  was  secured  through  adjustments 
to  external  non-realities,  is  to  do  sheer  violence 
to  logic  and  to  common  sense.  Or,  to  vary 
the  form  of  statement,  since  every  adjustment 
whereby  any  creature  sustains  life  may  be  called 
a  true  step,  and  every  maladjustment  whereby 
life  is  wrecked  may  be  called  a  false  step  ;  if  we 
are  asked  to  believe  that  Nature,  after  having 
throughout  the  whole  round  of  her  inferior  pro- 
ducts achieved  results  through  the  accumulation 
of  all  true  steps  and  pitiless  rejection  of  all 
false  steps,  suddenly  changed  her  method  and 
in  the  case  of  her  highest  product  began  achiev- 
ing results  through  the  accumulation  of  false 
steps  ;  I  say  we  are  entitled  to  resent  such  a 
suggestion  as  an  insult  to  our  understandings. 
All  the  analogies  of  Nature  fairly  shout  against 
the  assumption  of  such  a  breach  of  continuity 
between  the  evolution  of  Man  and  all  previous 
evolution.  So  far  as  our  knowledge  of  Nature 
goes  the  whole  momentum  of  it  carries  us  on- 
ward to  the  conclusion  that  the  Unseen  World, 
as  the  objective  term  in  a  relation  of  funda- 
mental importance  that  has  coexisted  with  the 
whole  career  of  Mankind,  has  a  real  existence ; 
and  it  is  but  following  out  the  analogy  to  re- 
gard that  Unseen  World  as  the  theatre  where 
the  ethical  process  is  destined  to  reach  its  full 
consummation.   The  lesson  of  evolution  is  that 

370 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

through  all  these  weary  ages  the  Human  Soul 
has  not  been  cherishing  in  Religion  a  delusive 
phantom,  but  in  spite  of  seemingly  endless 
groping  and  stumbling  it  has  been  rising  to  the 
recognition  of  its  essential  kinship  with  the 
ever  living  God.  Of  all  the  implications  of 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  with  regard  to  Man, 
I  believe  the  very  deepest  and  strongest  to  be 
that  which  asserts  the  Everlasting  Reality  of 
Religion. 

So  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  foregoing  argument 
is  here  advanced  for  the  first  time.  It  does  not 
pretend  to  meet  the  requirements  of  scientific 
demonstration.  One  must  not  look  for  scien- 
tific demonstration  in  problems  that  contain  so 
many  factors  transcending  our  direct  experience. 
But  as  an  appeal  to  our  common  sense,  the  ar- 
gument here  brought  forward  surely  has  tre- 
mendous weight.  It  seems  to  me  far  more  con- 
vincing than  any  chain  of  subtle  metaphysical 
reasoning  can  ever  be  ;  for  such  chains,  how- 
ever invincible  in  appearance,  are  no  stronger 
than  the  weakest  of  their  links,  and  in  metaphy- 
sics one  is  always  uneasily  suspecting  some  un- 
detected flaw.  My  argument  represents  the 
impression  that  is  irresistibly  forced  upon  one 
by  a  broad  general  familiarity  with  Nature's 
processes  and  methods ;  it  therefore  belongs  to 
the  class  of  arguments  that  survive. 


371 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Observe,  too,  that  it  is  far  from  being  a  mod- 
ified repetition  of  the  old  argument  that  beliefs 
universally  accepted  must  be  true.  Upon  the 
view  here  presented,  every  specific  opinion  ever 
entertained  by  man  respecting  religious  things 
may  be  wrong,  and  in  all  probability  is  exceed- 
ingly crude,  and  yet  the  Everlasting  Reality  of 
Religion,  in  its  three  indispensable  elements  as 
here  set  forth,  remains  unassailable.  Our  com- 
mon-sense argument  puts  the  scientific  pre- 
sumption entirely  and  decisively  on  the  side  of 
religion  and  against  all  atheistic  and  materialis- 
tic explanations  of  the  universe.  It  establishes 
harmony  between  our  highest  knowledge  and 
our  highest  aspirations  by  showing  that  the  lat- 
ter no  less  than  the  former  are  a  normal  result 
of  the  universal  cosmic  process.  It  has  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  advance  of  scientific  discovery, 
for  as  these  things  come  to  be  better  understood, 
it  is  going  to  be  realized  that  the  days  of  the 
antagonism  between  Science  and  Religion  must 
by  and  by  come  to  an  end.  That  antagonism 
has  been  chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that  religious 
ideas  were  until  lately  allied  with  the  doctrine 
of  special  creations.  They  have  therefore  needed 
to  be  remodelled  and  considered  from  new  points 
of  view.  But  we  have  at  length  reached  a  stage 
where  it  is  becoming  daily  more  and  more  ap- 
parent that  with  the  deeper  study  of  Nature 


372 


THROUGH  NATURE  TO  GOD 

the  old  strife  between  faith  and  knowledge  is 
drawing  to  a  close  ;  and  disentangled  at  last 
from  that  ancient  slough  of  despond  the  Hu- 
man Mind  will  breathe  a  freer  air  and  enjoy  a 
vastly  extended  horizon. 


L' ENVOI 

Yesterday,  when  weary  with  writing,  and  my  mind  quite 
dusty  with  considering  these  atoms,  I  was  called  to  supper, 
and  a  salad  I  had  asked  for  was  set  before  me.  **  It  seems, 
then,"  said  I  aloud,  ♦*  that  if  pewter  dishes,  leaves  of  lettuce, 
grains  of  salt,  drops  of  vinegar  and  oil,  and  slices  of  eggs,  had 
been  floating  about  in  the  air  from  all  eternity,  it  might  at  last 
happen  by  chance  that  there  would  come  a  salad."  "  Yes," 
says  my  wife,  "  but  not  so  nice  and  well-dressed  as  this  of 
mine  is  !  "  —  Kepler,  apud  Tait  and  Stewart,  Paradoxical 
Philosophy* 


LIFE   EVERLASTING 


LIFE    EVERLASTING 

FEW  incidents  in  ancient  history  are  more 
tragic  than  the  death  of  Pompey.  The 
spectacle  of  the  mighty  warrior  who  had 
conquered  the  Orient  and  contended  with  Csesar 
for  the  mastery  of  the  world,  a  defeated  and  de- 
spairing fugitive,  treacherously  murdered  and 
lying  unburied  on  the  Egyptian  strand,  was 
one  that  drew  tears  from  Caesar  himself  and 
from  many  another.  Yet  among  the  poets  of 
the  sixteenth  century  Renaissance  there  was  one 
who  took  a  different  view  of  the  matter.  In 
an  epigram  of  incomparable  beauty  Francesco 
Molsa  exclaims  :  — 

Dux,  Pharea  quamvis  jaceas  inhumatus  arena, 

Non  ideo  fad  est  savior  ira  tui  : 
Indignum  fuerat  tellus  tibi  victa  sepulcrum  ; 

Non  decuit  ccelo,  te,  nisi,  Magne,  tegi  ! 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  preserve  in  a  trans- 
lation the  peculiar  charm  of  these  lines,  but  a 
friend  of  mine  in  one  of  the  pleasant  student 
days  of  forty  years  ago  produced  this  happy  and 
fitting  paraphrase :  — 

We  grieve  not,  Pompey,  that  to  thee 
No  earthly  tomb  was  given  ; 

377 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

All  lands  subdued,  naught  else  was  free  , 
To  shelter  thee  but  Heaven  !  -^ 

Here  the  art  of  the  poet  lies  in  the  boldness 
with  which  he  seizes  upon  one  of  the  most 
subtle  and  startling  effects  of  contrast.  In  the 
very  circumstance  which  to  the  ancient  mind 
was  the  acme  of  humiliation  and  horror  his 
genius  discerns  the  occasion  for  most  exalted 
panegyric,  the  bitterness  of  death  is  lost  in  the 
abounding  triumph  of  the  soul  enlarged  and 
set  free,  the  attributes  of  woe  are  transformed 
into  crowning  glories. 

It  is  just  in  this  spirit  of  the  Modenese  poet 
that  mankind  has  sought  to  take  away  from 
death  its  sting,  from  the  grave  its  victory.  That 
solemn  moment  in  which,  for  those  who  have 
gone  before  and  for  us  who  are  to  follow,  the 
eye  of  sense  beholds  naught  save  the  ending  of 
the  world,  the  entrance  upon  a  black  and  silent 
eternity,  the  eye  of  faith  declares  to  be  the  su- 
preme moment  of  a  new  birth  for  the  disen- 
thralled soul,  the  introduction  to  a  new  era  of 
life  compared  with  which  the  present  one  is  not 
worthy  of  the  name.  Tts  S'  olSe^/,  exclaims 
Euripides, 

Ti's  8'  otScv  fi.  TO  ^^v  /A€v  ctrri  KaT^avctv, 
To  KarQavCiv  Se  t,yv ; 

Ylho  can  tell  but  that  this  which  we  call  life  is 
really  death,  from  which  what  we  call  death  is 
an  awakening  ?     From  this  vantage  ground  of 

378 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

thought  the  human  soul  comes  to  look  without 
dread  upon  the  termination  of  this  terrestrial 
existence.  The  failure  of  the  bodily  powers,  the 
stoppage  of  the  fluttering  pulse,  the  cold  still- 
ness upon  the  features  so  lately  wreathed  in 
smiles  of  merriment,  the  corruption  of  the 
tomb,  the  breaking  of  the  ties  of  love,  the  loss 
of  all  that  has  given  value  to  existence,  the  dull 
blankness  of  irremediable  sorrow,  the  knell  of 
everlasting  farewells,  —  all  this  is  seized  upon 
by  the  sovereign  imagination  of  man  and  trans- 
formed into  a  scene  of  transcending  glory,  such 
as  in  all  the  vast  career  of  the  universe  is  re- 
served for  humanity  alone.  In  the  highest  of 
creatures  the  Divine  immanence  has  acquired 
sufficient  concentration  and  steadiness  to  sur- 
vive the  dissolution  of  the  flesh  and  assert  an 
individuality  untrammelled  by  the  limitations 
which  in  the  present  life  everywhere  persistently 
surround  it.  Upon  this  view  death  is  not  a 
calamity  but  a  boon,  not  a  punishment  inflicted 
upon  Man,  but  the  supreme  manifestation  of 
his  exceptional  prerogative  as  chief  among  God's 
creatures.  Thus  the  faith  in  immortal  life  is  the 
great  poetic  achievement  of  the  human  mind, 
it  is  all-pervasive,  it  is  concerned  with  every 
moment  and  every  aspect  of  our  existence  as 
moral  individuals,  and  it  is  the  one  thing  that 
makes  this  world  inhabitable  for  beings  con- 
structed like  ourselves.  The  destruction  of  this 
379 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

sublime  poetic  conception  would  be  like  de- 
priving a  planet  of  its  atmosphere ;  it  would 
leave  nothing  but  a  moral  desert  as  cold  and 
dead  as  the  savage  surface  of  the  moon. 

We  have  now  to  consider  this  supreme  poetic 
achievement  of  man  —  his  belief  in  his  own 
Immortality  —  in  the  light  of  our  modern 
studies  of  evolution ;  we  must  notice  some  dis- 
tinctions between  its  earlier  and  later  stages,  and 
briefly  examine  some  of  the  objections  which 
have  been  alleged  in  the  name  of  science  against 
the  validity  of  the  belief. 

Here,  as  in  all  departments  of  the  efflores- 
cence of  the  human  mind,  the  beginnings  were 
lowly,  and  necessarily  so.  Nothing  very  lofty 
or  far-reaching  could  be  expected  from  the 
kind  of  brain  that  was  encased  in  the  Neander- 
thal skull.  Among  existing  savages  there  are 
tribes  concerning  which  travellers  have  doubted 
whether  they  possess  ideas  that  can  properly  be 
called  religious.  But  wherever  untutored  hu- 
manity exists  we  find  the  conception  of  a  world 
of_ghosts  more  or  less  distinctly  elaborated ; 
the  thronging  simulacra  of  departed  tribesmen 
linger  near  their  accustomed  haunts,  keenly  sen- 
sitive to  favour  or  neglect,  and  quick  to  punish 
all  infractions  of  the  rules  which  the  stern  exi- 
gencies of  life  in  the  wilderness  have  prescribed 
for  the  conduct  of  the  tribe.  This  crude  pri- 
meval ghost-world  is  thus  already  closely  associ- 
380 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

ated  with  the  ethical  side  of  life,  and  out  of  this 
association  have  grown  some  of  the  most  co- 
lossal governing  agencies  by  which  the  devel- 
opment of  human  society  has  been  influenced. 
It  is  therefore  not  without  reason  that  modern 
students  of  anthropology  devote  so  much  time 
to  animism  and  fetichism  and  other  crude  work- 
ings of  that  savage  intelligence  of  which  the 
primeval  ghost-world  is  a  product. 

It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  the  savage's  no- 
tion of  ghosts  may  have  originated  chiefly  in 
his  experience  of  dreams,  and  this  is  the  expla- 
nation at  present  most  in  favour.  The  sleeping 
warrior  ranges  far  and  wide  over  the  country, 
while  he  chases  the  buffalo  and  joins  in  the 
medicine  dance  with  comrades  known  to  have 
died,  yet  now  as  active  and  as  voluble  as  him- 
self; but  suddenly  the  scene  changes  and  he  is 
back  in  his  familiar  hut  surrounded  by  his  peo- 
ple who  can  testify  that  he  has  not  for  a  mo- 
ment left  them.  It  is  not  unlikely,  I  say,  that 
the  notion  of  one's  conscious  self  as  something 
which  can  quit  the  material  body  and  return 
to  it  may  have  started  in  such  often-repeated 
humble  experiences.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted, 
however,  that  this  savage  conception  of  the  de- 
tachable conscious  self  is  simply  the  primitive 
phase  of  the  Christian  conception  of  the  con- 
scious soul  which  dwells  within  the  perishable 
body  and  quits  it  at  death.    Through  many 

381 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

stages  of  elaboration  and  refinement  the  se- 
quence between  the  two  conceptions  is  unmis- 
takable. 

At  this  point  the  materialist  interposes  with 
an  argument  which  he  regards  as  crushing.  He 
reminds  us  that  if  we  would  estimate  the  value 
of  an  idea,  as  of  a  race-horse  or  a  mastiff,  it  is 
well  to  take  a  look  at  its  pedigree.  What,  then, 
is  to  be  said  —  he  scornfully  asks  —  of  a  doc- 
trine of  personal  immortality  which  when  re- 
duced to  its  lowest  terms  is  seen  to  have  started 
in  a  savage's  misinterpretation  of  his  dreams  ? 
What  more  is  needed  to  prove  it  unworthy  of 
the  serious  attention  of  a  scientific  student  of 
nature  ?  On  the  other  hand,  the  student  whose 
mood  is  truly  scientific  will  feel  that  one  of  man- 
kind's cardinal  beliefs  must  not  be  dismissed 
too  lightly  because  of  the  crudeness  and  error 
in  that  primitive  stratum  of  human  thought  in 
which  it  first  took  root.  In  his  perceptions 
within  certain  limits  the  savage  is  eminently 
keen  and  accurate,  but  when  it  comes  to  intel- 
lectual judgments  that  go  at  all  below  the  sur- 
face of  things  his  mind  is  a  mere  farrago  of 
grotesque  fancies,  wherein,  nevertheless,  some 
kernels  of  truth  are  here  and  there  embedded. 
It  is  a  long  way  from  the  dragon  swallowing 
the  sun  to  the  interposition  of  the  moon's 
dark  body  between  us  and  that  luminary.   The 


382 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

dragon  was  a  figment  of  fancy,  but  the  eclipse 
was  none  the  less  a  fact. 

Now  if  we  may  take  an  illustration  from  the 
workings  of  an  infant's  mind,  it  is  pretty  clearly 
made  out  that  as  baby  sits  propped  up  among 
his  pillows  and  turns  his  eyes  hither  and  thither 
in  following  his  mother's  movements  to  and  fro 
In  the  room,  she  seems  in  coming  toward  him 
to  enlarge  and  in  going  away  to  diminish  in 
size,  like  Alice  in  Wonderland.  It  is  only  with 
the  education  of  the  eye  and  the  small  muscles 
which  adjust  it  that  the  larger  area  subtended 
on  the  retina  instantly  means  comparative  near- 
ness and  the  smaller  area  comparative  remote- 
ness. At  first  the  sensations  are  interpreted  di- 
rectly, and  the  impression  upon  baby's  nascent 
intelligence  is  a  gross  error.  The  mother  is  not 
waxing  great  and  small  by  turns,  but  only  ap- 
proaching and  receding.  If,  however,  we  con- 
sider that  in  baby's  mind  the  enlarged  retinal 
spot  means  more  and  the  diminished  spot  less 
of  the  pleasurable  feelings  excited  by  a  familiar 
and  gracious  presence,  the  approach  of  which  is 
greeted  with  smiles  and  outstretched  arms,  while 
its  departure  is  bemoaned  with  cries  and  tears, 
we  see  that  as  to  the  essentials  of  the  situation 
the  dawning  intelligence  is  entirely  right,  al- 
though its  specific  interpretation  is  quite  wrong. 
Mamma  has  not  really  dwindled  and  vanished 


383 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

like  the  penny  in  a  conjurer's  palm,  but  has 
only  flitted  from  the  field  of  vision. 

To  come  back  now  to  our  primeval  savage  ; 
when  he  sees  in  a  dream  his  deceased  comrade 
and  mistakes  the  vision  for  a  reality,  his  error 
is  not  concerned  with  the  most  fundamental 
part  of  the  matter.  The  all-important  fact  is 
that  this  dreaming  savage  has  somehow  acquired 
a  mental  attitude  toward  death  which  is  totally 
different  from  that  of  all  other  animals,  and  is 
therefore  peculiarly  human.  Throughout  the 
half-dozen  invertebrate  branches  or  sub-king- 
doms, where  intelligence  is  manifested  only  in 
its  lower  forms  of  reflex  action  and  instinct,  we 
find  no  evidence  that  any  creature  has  come  to 
know  of  death.  There  is  a  sense,  no  doubt,  in 
which  we  may  say  that  the  love  of  life  is  uni- 
versal. As  a  rule,  all  animals  shun  danger,  and 
natural  selection  maintains  this  rule  by  the  piti- 
less slaughter  of  all  delinquents,  of  all  in  whom 
the  needful  inherited  tendencies  are  too  weak. 
But  in  the  lower  animal  grades  and  in  the 
vegetal  world  the  courting  of  life  and  the  shrink- 
ing from  death  go  on  without  conscious  intelli- 
gence, as  the  blades  of  grass  in  a  meadow  or 
the  clustering  leaves  upon  a  tree  compete  with 
one  another  for  the  maximum  of  exposure  to 
sunshine  until  perhaps  stout  boughs  and  stems 
are  warped  or  twisted  in  the  struggle.  Among 
invertebrates,  even  when  we  get  so  high  as  lob- 
384 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

sters  and  cuttlefish,  the  consciousness  attendant 
upon  the  seizing  of  prey  and  the  escape  from 
enemies  probably  does  not  extend  beyond  the 
facts  within  the  immediate  sphere  of  vision.  Even 
among  those  ants  that  have  marshalled  hosts  and 
grand  tactics  there  is  doubtless  no  such  thing  as 
meditation  of  death.  Passing  to  the  vertebrates, 
it  is  not  until  we  reach  the  warm-blooded  birds 
and  mammals  that  we  find  what  we  are  seeking. 
Among  sundry  birds  and  mammals  we  see  in- 
dications of  a  dawning  recognition  of  the  presence 
of  death.  An  early  manifestation  is  the  sense 
of  bereavement  when  the  maternal  instinct  is 
rudely  disturbed,  as  in  the  cow  mourning  for 
her  calf.  This  feeling  goes  a  little  way,  but  not 
a  great  way,  beyond  the  sense  of  physical  dis- 
comfort, and  is  soon  relieved  by  milking.  Much 
more  intense  and  abiding  is  the  feeling  of  be- 
reavement among  birds  that  mate  for  life,  and 
among  the  higher  apes,  and  it  reaches  its  cul- 
mination in  the  dog,  whose  intelligence  and 
affections  have  been  so  profoundly  modified 
through  his  immensely  long  comradeship  with 
man.  Nowhere  in  literature  do  we  strike  upon 
a  deeper  note  of  pathos  than  in  Scott's  immortal 
lines  on  the  dog  who  starved  while  watching  his 
young  master's  lifeless  body,  alone  upon  a 
Highland  moor :  — 

**  How  long  didst  thou  think  that  his  silence  was  slumber  ? 
When  the  wind  stirred  his  garment,  how  oft  didst  thou  start ! ' ' 

38s 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Yet  even  this  devoted  creature  could  have  car- 
ried his  thoughts  but  little  way  toward  the  point 
reached  by  our  dreaming  savage  with  his  in- 
cipient ghost-world.  More  power  of  abstraction 
and  generalization  was  needed.  While  the  sight 
of  the  killing  of  a  fellow-creature  may  arouse 
violent  terror  in  the  higher  mammals  below 
man,  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  sight 
of  the  dead  body  awakens  in  the  dumb  spectator 
any  general  conceptions  in  which  his  own  ulti- 
mate doom  is  included.  The  only  feeling 
aroused  seems  to  vary  between  utter  indifference 
and  faint  curiosity.  Professor  Shaler  makes  a 
statement  of  cardinal  importance  in  this  con- 
nection when  he  says  :  "  If  we  should  seek  some 
one  mark  which,  in  the  intellectual  advance 
from  the  brutes  to  man,  might  denote  the  pas- 
sage to  the  human  side,  we  might  well  find  it 
in  the  moment  when  it  dawned  on  the  nascent 
man  that  death  was  a  mystery  which  he  had  in 
his  turn  to  meet."  ^ 

It  is  therefore  interesting  to  note  that  the 
first  approaches,  albeit  remote  ones,  toward  a 
realizing  sense  of  death  occur  among  those  ani- 
mals  in  which  the  beginnings  of  family  life  have 
been  made,  and  the  habitual  exercise  of  altruis- 
tic emotions  helps  to  widen  the  intelligence  and 
facihtate  the  appropriation  to  one's  self  of  the 
experiences  of  one's  comrades  and  mates.    Such 

^  Shaler,  The  Individual,  p.  194. 
386 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

IS  the  case  with  permanently  mated  birds  and 
with  the  higher  apes,  while  the  case  of  the  dog, 
exceptional  as  it  is  through  his  acquired  depend- 
ence upon  man,  has  similar  implications.  Now 
I  have  elsewhere  proved  and  repeatedly  illus- 
trated that  the  leading  peculiarity  which  distin- 
guished man's  apelike  progenitors  from  all  other 
creatures  was  the  progressive  increase  in  the  du- 
ration of  infancy,  which  was  a  direct  consequence 
of  expanding  intelligence,  and  was  moreover  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  genesis  of  the  human 
family  and  of  human  society.  It  appears  now 
that  the  realizing  sense  of  death,  such  as  we 
find  it  in  untutored  men  of  primitive  habits  of 
thought,  has  originated  in  the  selfsame  circum- 
stances which  have  wrought  the  mighty  change 
from  gregariousness  to  sociality,  from  the  gen- 
eral level  of  mammalian  existence  to  the  unique 
level  of  humanity.  I  have  elsewhere  called  at- 
tention to  the  profoundly  interesting  fact  that 
the  notion  of  an  Unseen  World  beyond  that 
in  which  we  lead  our  daily  lives  is  coeval  with 
the  earliest  beginnings  of  Humanity  upon  our 
planet.  We  may  now  observe  that  it  adds  greatly 
to  the  interest  and  to  the  significance  of  this 
fact,  when  we  find  that  the  very  circumstances 
which  tended  to  single  out  our  progenitors,  and 
raise  them  from  the  average  mammalian  level 
into  Manhood,  tended  also  to  make  them 
realize  the  problem  of  death  and  meet  it  with 
387 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

a  solution.  The  grouping  of  facts  now  begins 
to  make  it  appear  that  this  primeval  solution 
was  but  the  natural  outcome  of  the  whole  cos- 
mic process  that  had  gone  before;  that  when 
nascent  Humanity  first  eluded  the  burden  of 
the  problem  by  rising  above  it,  this  was  but 
part  and  parcel  of  the  unprecedented  cosmic 
operation  through  which  man's  Humanity  was 
developed  and  declared.  The  long  and  cumula- 
tive play  of  cause  and  effect  which  wrought 
the  lengthening  of  the  period  of  helpless  baby- 
hood and  the  correlative  maternal  care,  and 
which  thus  differentiated  the  non-human  horde 
of  primates  into  a  group  of  human  clans,  was 
attended  by  a  strong  development  of  the  sym- 
pathetic feelings  as  it  vastly  increased  the  mu- 
tual dependence  among  individuals.  During 
the  same  period  the  gradual  acquirement  of 
articulate  speech  was  accompanied  by  a  great 
increase  in  the  powers  of  abstraction  and  gener- 
alization. These  new  capacities  were  applied 
to  the  interpretation  of  death,  just  as  they  were 
applied  to  all  other  things ;  and  thus,  in  the 
very  process  of  becoming  human,  our  progeni- 
tors arose  to  the  consciousness  of  death  as  some- 
thing with  which  humanity  has  always  and  every- 
where to  reckon.  From  the  earliest  and  most 
rudimentary  stages  of  the  process,  however,  the 
conception  of  death  was  not  of  an  event  which 
puts  an  end  to  human  individuality,  but  of  an 
388 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

event  which  human  individuality  survives.  If 
we  look  at  the  circumstances  of  the  genesis  of 
mankind  purely  from  the  naturalist's  point  of 
view,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  highly  significant  that 
the  mental  attitude  toward  death  should  from 
the  first  have  assumed  this  form,  that  the  hu- 
man soul  should  from  the  start  have  felt  itself 
encompassed  not  only  by  the  endless  multitude 
of  visible  and  tangible  and  audible  things,  but 
also  by  an  Unseen  World.  In  view  of  this 
striking  fact  it  is  of  small  moment  that  the  earli- 
est generalizations  which  in  course  of  time  de- 
veloped into  a  world  of  ghosts  and  demons  were 
grotesquely  erroneous.  Primitive  theorizing  is 
sure  to  be  faulty  and  in  the  light  of  later  know- 
ledge comes  to  seem  absurd  and  bizarre.  Such 
has  been  in  modern  days  the  fate  of  the  savage's 
ghost-world,  along  with  the  Ptolemaic  astron- 
omy, the  doctrine  of  signatures,  and  many  an- 
other sample  of  the  "wisdom  of  the  ancients." 
But  the  fact  that  primitive  man  misstated  his 
relation  to  the  Unseen  World  in  no  wise  mili- 
tates against  the  truth  of  his  assumption  that 
such  a  world  exists  for  us. 

To  this  question  as  to  the  truth  of  the  as- 
sumption I  shall  return  in  the  sequel.  We 
have  very  briefly  sketched  the  manner  of  its 
origination,  and  here  we  may  leave  this  part  of 
our  subject  with  the  remark  that  the  belief  in  a 
future  life,  in  a  world  unseen  to  mortal  eyes,  is 

3^ 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

not  only  coeval  with  the  beginnings  of  the  hu- 
man race  but  is  also  coextensive  with  it  in  all  its 
subsequent  stages  of  development.  It  is  in  short 
one  of  the  differential  attributes  of  humanity. 
Man  is  not  only  the  primate  who  possesses  ar- 
ticulate speech  and  the  power  of  abstract  rea- 
soning, who  is  characterized  by  a  long  period 
of  plastic  infancy  and  a  corresponding  capacity 
for  progress,  who  is  grouped  in  societies  of 
which  the  primordial  units  were  clans  ;  he  is  not 
only  all  this,  but  he  is  the  creature  who  expects 
to  survive  the  event  of  physical  death.  This 
expectation  was  one  of  his  acquisitions  gained 
while  attaining  to  the  human  plane  of  existence, 
and  the  interesting  question  in  the  natural  his- 
tory of  man  is  whether  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
permanent  acquisition,  or  is  rather  analogous  to 
the  organ  that  subserves,  perhaps  through  long 
ages,  an  important  but  temporary  purpose,  after 
the  fulfilment  of  which  it  dwindles  into  a  rudi- 
ment neglected  and  forgotten. 

I  do  not  overlook  the  existence  of  divers 
theological  systems  in  which  the  attitude  toward 
a  future  life  is  very  different  from  that  with 
which  our  Christian  education  has  made  us  fa- 
miliar. We  sometimes  hear  such  systems  cited 
as  exceptions  to  the  alleged  universality  of  the 
human  belief  in  immortality.  The  Buddhist 
looks  forward  through  myriads  of  successive 
sentient  existences  to  a  culminating  state  of 
390 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

Nirwana,  which  if  not  actual  extinction  is  at 
least  complete  quiescence,  the  absolute  zero  of 
being.  It  hardly  needs  saying,  however,  that 
Buddhistic  theology,  though  it  may  have  ar- 
rived at  such  a  zero  through  long  flights  of 
metaphysical  reasoning,  is  nevertheless  based  in 
all  its  foundations  upon  the  primitive  belief  in 
man's  survival  of  death.  Sometimes  it  is  said 
that  the  Jews  of  the  Old  Testament  times  had 
no  proper  conception  of  immortality.  It  can 
hardly  be  maintained,  however,  that  such  stories 
as  that  of  the  conversation  at  Endor  between  the 
living  Saul  and  the  dead  Samuel  could  emanate 
from  a  people  destitute  of  belief  in  a  Hfe  after 
death.  In  point  of  fact  ancient  Jewish  thought 
abounds  in  traces  of  the  primitive  ghost-world. 
It  is  only  by  contrast  with  the  glorious  and  in- 
spiring Christian  development  of  the  beUef  in 
immortality  that  the  earlier  dispensation  seems 
so  jejune  and  meagre  in  its  faith.  There  was 
little  to  arouse  religious  emotion  in  the  dismal 
world  of  flitting  shadows,  the  Sheol  or  Hades 
from  which  the  Greek  hero  would  so  gladly 
have  escaped,  even  to  take  the  most  menial 
position  in  all  the  sunlit  world.  Greek  and 
Hebrew  thought,  in  what  we  call  the  classic 
ages,  stood  alike  in  need  of  religious  revival. 
The  mythic  lore  of  the  Greek  mind  had  flow- 
ered luxuriantly  in  aesthetic  fancies,  while  the 
spiritual  life  of  Judaism  languished  amid  strict 

39^ 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

obedience  to  forms  and  precepts.  The  far-reach- 
ing thoughts  of  Greek  philosophers  and  the 
lofty  ethics  of  Hebrew  preachers  were  divorced 
from  the  primitive  ghost-world,  even  as  the 
mental  processes  of  the  modern  scholar  are  sep- 
arated by  a  great  gulf  from  those  of  the  woman 
who  comes  to  scrub  the  floor.  The  advent  of 
Christianity  fused  together  the  various  elements. 
The  doctrine  of  a  future  life  was  endowed  with 
all  the  moral  significance  that  Jewish  thought 
could  give  to  it,  and  with  all  the  mystic  glory 
that  Hellenic  speculation  could  contribute,  so 
that  the  effect  upon  men  was  that  of  a  fresh 
revelation  of  life  and  immortality  through  the 
gospel.  Grotesque  and  hideous  features  also 
were  brought  in  from  the  ghost-worlds  of  the 
classic  ages,  as  well  as  from  that  of  the  Teutonic 
barbarians,  and  the  result  is  seen  in  mediaeval 
Christianity.  At  no  other  time,  perhaps,  has  the 
Unseen  World  played  such  a  leading  part  in 
men's  minds  as  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  of  our  Christian  era,  in  the  age  that 
witnessed  the  culmination  of  sublimity  in  church 
architecture,  in  the  society  whose  thought  found 
comprehensive  expression  in  the  "  Summa  "  of 
St.  Thomas,  as  the  thought  of  our  times  is  ex- 
pressed in  Spencer's  "  First  Principles,"  in  an 
intellectual  atmosphere  which  just  as  it  was 
about  passing  away  was  depicted  for  all  coming 
time  in  the  poem  of  Dante.    It  was  a  time  of 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

spiritual  awakening  such  as  mankind  had  never 
before  witnessed,  but  it  was  also  an  age  of  new 
problems,  an  age  wherein  the  seeds  of  revolt 
were  thickly  germinating.  The  nature  and  con- 
stitution of  the  Unseen  World  had  been  too 
rashly  and  too  elaborately  set  forth  in  theorems 
born  of  the  slender  knowledge  of  primitive 
times,  and  the  growing  tendency  to  interrogate 
Nature  soon  led  to  conclusions  which  broke 
down  the  old  edifice  of  thought.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  came  Copernicus  and  adminis- 
tered such  a  shock  to  the  mind  as  even  Lu- 
ther's defiance  of  the  papacy  scarcely  equalled. 
In  recent  days,  when  Bishop  Wilberforce  reck- 
oned without  his  host  in  trying  to  twit  Huxley 
with  his  monkey  ancestry,  our  minds  were  get- 
ting inured  to  all  sorts  of  audacious  innovations, 
so  that  they  did  not  greatly  disturb  us.  For  its 
unsettling  effects  upon  time-honoured  beliefs 
and  mental  habits  the  Darwinian  theory  is  no 
more  to  be  compared  to  the  Copernican  than 
the  invention  of  the  steamboat  is  to  be  compared 
to  the  voyages  of  Columbus.  We  are  in  no 
danger  of  overrating  the  bewilderment  that  was 
wrought  by  the  discovery  that  our  earth  is  not 
the  physical  centre  of  things,  and  that  the  sun 
apparently  does  not  exist  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  giving  light  and  warmth  to  man's  terrestrial 
habitat.  We  need  not  wonder  that  in  conserv- 
ative Spain  scarcely  a  century  ago  the  Univer- 
393 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

sity  of  Salamanca  prohibited  the  teaching  of  the 
Newtonian  astronomy.  We  need  not  wonder 
that  Galileo  should  have  been  commanded  to 
hold  his  tongue  on  a  topic  that  seemed  to  cast 
discredit  upon  the  whole  theology  that  assumes 
man  to  be  the  central  object  of  the  Divine 
care. 

This  unsettling  of  men's  minds  was  of  course 
indefinitely  increased  by  the  revolt  of  Descartes 
against  the  scholastic  philosophy,  by  Newton's 
immense  contributions  to  physics,  and  by  such 
discoveries  as  those  of  Harvey,  Black,  and  La- 
voisier, which  showed  by  what  methods  truth 
could  be  obtained  concerning  Nature's  opera- 
tions, and  how  different  such  methods  were  from 
those  by  which  the  accepted  systems  of  theology 
had  been  built  up.  The  result  has  been  whole- 
sale scepticism  directed  against  everything  what- 
ever that  now  exists  or  has  ever  existed  in 
the  shape  of  an  ancient  belief.  This  result  was 
first  reached  in  France  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  the  thoughts  of  Locke 
and  Newton  were  eagerly  absorbed  in  a  com- 
munity irritated  beyond  endurance  by  social 
injustice,  and  in  which  the  church  had  done 
much  to  forfeit  respect.  Thus  came  about  that 
violent  outbreak  of  materialistic  atheism  which, 
in  spite  of  its  generous  aims  and  many  admir- 
able achievements,  is  surely  one  of  the  most 
mournful  episodes  in  the  history  of  human 
394 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

thought.  The  French  philosophers  set  an  ex- 
ample to  three  generations ;  the  note  struck  by 
Diderot  and  BufFon  and  D'Alembert  continued 
to  resound  until  the  scientific  horizon  had  be- 
come radiant  in  every  quarter  with  the  promise 
of  a  brighter  day,  and  its  echoes  have  not  yet 
died.  It  was  but  lately  that  the  voice  of  La  Met- 
trie  was  heard  again  from  the  lips  of  Strauss  and 
Biichner,  and  even  to-day  we  may  sometimes 
be  entertained  by  a  belated  eighteenth  century 
naturalist  who  is  fully  persuaded  that  his  denial 
of  human  immortality  is  an  inevitable  corollary 
from  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  Indeed  the  pro- 
gress of  scientific  discovery  has  been  so  rapid 
since  the  time  of  Diderot,  its  achievements  have 
been  so  vast,  its  results  so  multifarious  and  so 
dazzling,  that  it  has  well-nigh  absorbed  the  at- 
tention of  the  foremost  minds.  The  dogmas  of 
theology  seem  stale  and  empty,  the  speculations 
of  metaphysics  vain  and  unprofitable,  in  com- 
parison with  the  fascinating  marvels  of  chemistry 
and  astronomy,  of  palaeontology  and  spectrum 
analysis ;  and  it  is  natural  that  we  should  re- 
joice over  the  methods  of  research  that  are 
enabling  us  thus  to  wrest  from  Nature  a  few  of 
her  long  guarded  secrets,  and  to  make  up  our 
minds  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  conclusions 
that  are  not  obtained  or  at  least  verified  by  such 
scientific  methods.  Daily  we  hear  sounded  the 
praises  of  observation,  of  experiment,  of  com- 

39S 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

parison  ;  we  are  warned  against  long  deductions, 
since  the  strength  of  any  chain  of  arguments  is 
measured  by  that  of  its  weakest  Hnk,  and  expe- 
rience is  perpetually  teaching  us,  to  our  vexa- 
tion and  chagrin,  that  what  reason  says  must  be 
so  is  not  so,  that  facts  will  not  fit  hypothesis. 
The  more  things  we  try  to  explain,  the  better 
we  realize  that  we  live  in  a  world  of  unexplained 
residua.  Away,  then,  with  all  so-called  truths 
that  cannot  be  tested  by  weights  and  measures, 
or  other  direct  appeals  to  the  senses  !  Your 
modern  philosopher  will  have  nothing  of  them. 
His  system  is  composed,  from  start  to  finish,  of 
scientific  theorems.  As  for  the  higher  specula- 
tions, the  deeper  generalizations,  in  which  phi- 
losophy has  been  wont  to  indulge  concerning 
the  aim  and  meaning  of  existence,  he  waves 
them  away  as  profitless  or  even  mischievous. 
The  world  is  full  of  questions  as  pressing  as  they 
are  baffling.  As  I  once  heard  Herbert  Spencer 
say,  "You  cannot  take  up  any  problem  in  phy- 
sics without  being  quickly  led  to  some  meta- 
physical problem  which  you  can  neither  solve 
nor  evade."  It  was  in  order  to  secure  philosophic 
peace  of  mind  that  Auguste  Comte  undertook 
to  build  up  what  he  called  Positive  Philosophy, 
in  which  the  existence  of  all  such  problems  was 
to  be  complacently  ignored,  —  much  as  the 
ostrich  seeks  escape  from  a  dilemma  by  burying 
its  head  in  the  sand.  In  a  far  more  reverent 
396 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

and  justifiable  spirit  the  agnostic  like  Huxley 
or  Spencer  acknowledges  the  limitations  of  the 
human  mind  and  builds  as  far  as  he  may,  leav- 
ing the  rest  to  God. 

In  the  fervour  of  this  modern  reliance  upon 
scientific  methods,  we  are  warned  with  especial 
emphasis  against  all  humours  and  predilections 
which  we  may  be  in  danger  of  cherishing  as 
human  beings.  In  a  new  sense  of  the  words  we 
are  reminded  that  "the  heart  of  man  is  deceit- 
ful and  desperately  wicked,"  and  if  any  belief 
is  especially  pleasant  or  consoling  to  us,  forth- 
with does  Science  lay  upon  us  her  austere  com- 
mand to  mortify  the  flesh  and  treat  the  belief 
in  question  with  exceptional  disfavour  and  sus- 
picion. Thus  there  has  grown  up  a  kind  of 
Puritanism  in  the  scientific  temper  which,  while 
announcing  its  unalterable  purpose  to  follow 
Truth  though  she  lead  us  to  Hades,  takes  a 
kind  of  grim  satisfaction  in  emphasizing  the 
place  of  destination. 

Now  there  can  be  no  sort  of  doubt  that  this 
rigid  and  vigorous  scientific  temper  is  in  the 
main  eminently  wholesome  and  commendable. 
In  the  interests  of  intellectual  honesty  there  is 
nothing  which  we  need  more  than  to  be  put 
on  our  guard  against  allowing  our  reasoning 
processes  to  be  warped  by  our  feelings.  Never- 
theless in  steering  clear  of  Scylla  it  would  be 
a  pity  to  tumble  straight  into  the  maw  of  Cha- 

397 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

rybdis,  and  it  behooves  us  to  ask  just  how  far 
the  canons  of  scientific  method  are  competent 
to  guide  us  in  dealing  with  ultimate  questions. 
Science  has  given  us  so  many  surprises  that  our 
capacity  for  being  shocked  or  astounded  is  well- 
nigh  exhausted,  and  our  old  unregenerate  hu- 
man nature  has  been  bullied  and  badgered  into 
something  like  humility  ;  so  that  now,  at  the 
end  of  the  greatest  and  most  bewildering  of 
centuries,  we  may  fitly  pause  for  a  moment  and 
ask  how  fares  it,  in  these  exacting  days,  with 
that  Unseen  World  which  man  brought  with 
him  when  he  was  first  making  his  appearance 
on  our  planet  ?  And  what  has  science  to  say 
about  that  time-honoured  belief  that  the  human 
soul  survives  the  death  of  the  human  body  ? 

The  position  that  science  irrevocably  con- 
demns such  a  belief  seems  at  first  sight  a  very 
strong  one  and  has  unquestionably  had  a  good 
deal  of  weight  with  many  minds  of  the  present 
generation.  Throughout  the  animal  kingdom 
we  never  see  sensation,  perception,  instinct, 
volition,  reasoning,  or  any  of  the  phenomena 
which  we  distinguish  as  mental,  manifested  ex- 
cept in  connection  with  nerve-matter  arranged 
in  systems  of  various  degrees  of  complexity. 
We  can  trace  sundry  relations  of  general  cor- 
respondence between  the  increasing  manifesta- 
tions of  intelligence  and  the  increasing  compli- 
cations of  the  nervous  system.  Injuries  to  the 
398 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

nervous  structure  entail  failures  of  function, 
either  in  the  mental  operations  themselves  or 
in  the  control  which  they  exercise  over  the  ac- 
tions of  the  body  ;  there  is  either  psychical  aber- 
ration, or  loss  of  consciousness,  or  muscular 
paralysis.  At  the  moment  of  death,  as  soon  as 
the  current  of  arterial  blood  ceases  to  flow 
through  the  cerebral  vessels,  all  signs  of  con- 
sciousness cease  for  the  looker-on  ;  and  after 
the  nervous  system  has  been  resolved  into  its 
elements,  what  reason  have  we  to  suppose  that 
consciousness  survives,  any  more  than  that  the 
wetness  of  water  should  survive  its  separation 
into  oxygen  and  hydrogen  ? 

So  far  as  our  terrestrial  experience  goes  there 
can  be  but  one  answer  to  such  a  question.  We 
have  no  more  warrant  in  experience  for  suppos- 
ing consciousness  to  exist  without  a  nervous 
system  than  we  have  for  supposing  the  proper- 
ties of  water  to  exist  in  a  world  destitute  of 
hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Our  power  of  framing 
conceptions  is  narrowly  limited  by  experience, 
and  when  we  try  to  figure  to  ourselves  the  con- 
ditions of  a  future  life  we  are  either  hopelessly 
baffled  at  the  start  or  else  we  fall  back  upon 
grossly  materialistic  imagery.  The  savage's 
ghost-world  is  a  mere  repetition  of  the  fights 
and  hunts  with  which  he  is  familiar.  The  early 
Christians  looked  forward  to  a  speedy  resurrec- 
tion from  Sheol,  followed  by  an  endless  bodily 
399 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

existence  upon  a  renovated  earth.  Dante's 
pictures  of  the  Unseen  World  are  often  so 
intensely  materialistic  as  to  seem  grotesque  in 
our  more  truly  spiritual  age.  Popular  concep- 
tions of  heaven  to-day  abound  in  symbolism 
that  is  confessedly  a  mere  reflection  from  the 
world  of  matter  ;  insomuch  that  persons  of  suf- 
ficient culture  to  realize  the  inadequacy  of  these 
popular  images  are  wont  to  avoid  the  difficulty 
by  refraining  from  putting  their  hopes  and  be- 
liefs into  any  definite  or  describable  form. 
Among  such  minds  there  is  a  tacit  agreem.ent 
that  the  unseen  world  must  be  purely  spiritual 
in  constitution,  yet  no  mental  image  of  such  a 
world  can  be  formed.  We  are  all  agreed  that 
life  beyond  the  grave  would  be  a  delusion  and 
a  cruel  mockery  without  the  continuance  of 
the  tender  household  afi^ections  which  alone 
make  the  present  life  worth  living;  but  to  im- 
agine the  recognition  of  soul  by  soul  apart  from 
the  material  structure  in  which  we  have  known 
soul  to  be  manifested,  apart  from  the  look 
of  the  loved  face,  the  tones  of  the  loved  voice, 
or  the  renewed  touch  of  the  long  vanished 
hand,  is  something  quite  beyond  our  power. 
Even  if  you  try  to  imagine  your  own  psychical 
activity  as  continuing  without  the  aid  of  the 
physical  machinery  of  sensation,  you  soon  get 
into  unmanageable  difficulties.  The  furniture 
of  your  mind  consists  in  great  part  of  sensu- 
400 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

ous  images,  chiefly  visual,  and  you  cannot  in 
thought  follow  yourself  into  a  world  that  does 
not  announce  itself  to  you  through  sense  im- 
pressions. From  all  this  it  plainly  appears  that 
our  notion  of  the  survival  of  conscious  activity 
apart  from  material  conditions  is  not  only  un- 
supported by  any  evidence  that  can  be  gathered 
from  the  world  of  which  we  have  experience 
but  is  utterly  and  hopelessly  inconceivable. 

The  argument  here  summarized  is  in  noway 
profound  or  abstruse ;  it  is  extremely  obvious, 
and  as  its  propositions  cannot  well  be  contro- 
verted, it  has  had  great  weight  with  many  peo- 
ple. I  dare  say  it  may  be  held  responsible  for 
the  larger  part  of  contemporary  scepticism  as 
to  the  future  life.  People  have  grown  accus- 
tomed to  demanding  scientific  support  for  doc- 
trines, whereas  this  doctrine  is  not  only  destitute 
of  scientific  support  but  lands  us  in  inconceiv- 
abilities ;  is  it  not,  then,  untenable  and  absurd  ? 
Such  is  the  common  argument.  There  are  those 
who  seek  to  meet  it  with  inductive  evidence  of 
the  presence  of  disembodied  spirits  or  ghosts 
which  hold  direct  communication  only  with 
certain  specially  endowed  persons  known  as 
mediums.  Concerning  such  inductive  evidence 
it  may  be  said  that  very  little  has  as  yet  been 
brought  forward  which  is  likely  to  make  much 
impression  upon  minds  trained  in  investigation. 
If  its  value  as  evidence  were  to  be  conceded,  it 
401 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

would  seem  to  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
grade  of  intelligence  which  survives  the  grave  is 
about  on  a  par  with  that  which  in  the  present 
life  we  are  accustomed  to  shut  up  in  asylums 
for  idiots.  On  the  whole  the  mediumistic  ideas 
and  methods  are  frankly  materialistic,  their 
alleged  communications  with  the  other  world  are 
through  sights  and  sounds,  and  if  their  preten- 
sions could  be  sustained  the  result  would  be 
simply  the  rehabilitation  of  the  primitive  ghost- 
world.  Their  theory  of  things  moves  on  so 
low  a  plane  as  hardly  to  merit  notice  in  a  serious 
philosophic  discussion. 

To  return  to  the  argument  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  survival  of  conscious  activity  apart  from 
material  conditions  is  unsupported  by  experience 
and  is  inconceivable,  we  may  observe  that  it  is 
inconceivable  just  because  it  is  entirely  without 
foundation  in  experience.  Our  powers  of_  con- 
ception are  narrowly  determined  by  the  limits 
oFour  experience,  and  when  that  experience  has 
never  furnished  us  with  the  materials  for  framing 
a  conception  we  simply  cannot  frame  it.  Hence 
we  cannot  conceive  of  the  conscious  soul  as  en- 
tirely dissociated  from  any  material  vehicle. 

Now  we  are  prepared  to  ask,  How  much  does 
this  famous  argument  amount  to,  as  against  the 
belief  that  the  soul  survives  the  body  ?  The 
answer  is.  Nothing  !  absolutely  nothing.  It  not 
only  fails  to  disprove  the  validity  of  the  belief, 
402 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

but  It  does  not  raise  even  the  s[\g\\t.tst prima  facie 
presumption  against  it.    This  will  at  once  be- 
come   apparent   if  we  remember   that    human 
experience  is  very  far  indeed  from  being  infinite, 
and  that  there  are   in   all  probability  immense 
regions  of  existence  in  every  way  as  real  as-  the 
region  which  we   know,   yet  concerning  which 
we  cannot  form  the  faintest  rudiment  of  a  con- 
ception.   Within  the  past  century  the  study  of 
light  and  other  radiant  forces  has  furnished  us 
with  a  suggestive  object-lesson.    The  luminifer- 
ous  ether  combines  properties  which  are  incon- 
ceivable in  connection.     How  curious   to  think 
that  we  live  and  move  in  an   ocean  of  ether  in 
which  the  particles  of  all   material   things   are 
floating  like  islands  !    But  how  amazing  to  learn 
that  this  ocean  of  ether  is  also  an  adamantine 
firmament  !     Is  not    this   sheer  nonsense  ?    an 
ocean  firmament  of  ether-adamant !    Yet  such 
seems  to  be  the  fact,  and  our  philosophy  must 
make  the  best  of  it.    Now  suppose  that  all  this 
world  were  crowded  with  disembodied  souls,  an 
infinite  throng  most  aptly  called  "  the  majority," 
a  thousand  or  more  on  every  spot  in   space  as 
broad  as  the  point  of  a  cambric  needle,  in  what 
way  could  we  become  aware  of  their  existence  ? 
Clearly  in  no  way,  since  we  have    no   organ  or 
faculty  for  the  perception  of  soul  apart  from  the 
material  structure  and  activities  in  which  it  has 
been  manifested  throughout  the  whole  course 
403 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

of  our  experience.  There  we  will  suppose  are 
the  countless  millions,  the  existence  of  any  one 
of  whom,  could  we  detect  it,  would  suffice  to 
demonstrate  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  and 
yet,  for  lack  of  the  requisite  means  of  commu- 
nication, all  this  evidence  is  inaccessible.  Such 
an  illustration  shows  that  "  the  entire  absence 
of  testimony  does  not  even  raise  a  negative  pre- 
sumption except  in  cases  where  testimony  is 
accessible."  The  reason  is  obvious.  Until  we 
can  go  wherever  the  testimony  may  be,  we  are 
not  entitled  to  affirm  that  there  is  an  absence 
of  testimony.  So  long  as  our  knowledge  is 
restricted  by  the  conditions  of  this  terrestrial 
life,  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  make  negative 
assertions  as  to  regions  of  existence  outside  of 
these  conditions.  We  may  feel  quite  free,  there- 
fore, to  give  due  weight  to  any  considerations 
which  make  it  probable  that  consciousness  sur- 
vives the  wreck  of  the  material  body. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  see  the  fallacy 
of  Moleschott's  often-quoted  aphorism,  "  No 
thought  without  phosphorus  !  "  When  this  say- 
ing was  a  new  one,  there  were  worthy  people 
who  felt  that  somehow  it  was  all  over  with  man's 
immortal  soul.  With  phosphorus  you  light 
your  candle,  and  with  phosphorus  you  discover 
Neptune  and  write  the  Fifth  Symphony ;  how 
charmingly  simple  and  convincing!  And  yet 
was  anything  save  a  bit  of  rhetoric  really  gained 
404 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

by  singling  out  phosphorus  among  the  chemical 
constituents  of  brain  tissue  rather  than  nitrogen 
or  carbon  ?  Suppose  the  dictum  had  been, "  No 
thought  without  a  brain."  The  obvious  answer 
would  have  been,  "  If  you  refer  to  the  present 
Hfe,  most  erudite  professor,  your  remark  is  true, 
but  hardly  novel  or  startling ;  if  you  refer  to 
any  condition  of  things  subsequent  to  death, 
pray  where  did  you  obtain  your  knowledge  ?  " 
Nevertheless  this  point  cannot  be  disposed 
of  simply  by  exhibiting  the  flaw  in  Moleschott's 
rhetoric.  His  remark  rests  upon  the  assumption 
that  conscious  mental  phenomena  are  products 
of  the  organic  tissues  with  which  they  are  as- 
sociated. This  is  of  course  the  central  strong- 
hold of  materialism.  A  century  ago  the  case 
was  very  boldly  put  when  we  were  asked  to  be- 
lieve that  the  brain  secretes  thought  as  the  liver 
secretes  bile.  Nobody  to-day  would  think  of 
making  such  a  comparison,  but  it  is  more  cau- 
tiously stated  that  consciousness  is  a  "  function  " 
of  the  brain,  or  at  all  events  of  the  nervous 
system,  even  as  bile-making  is  a  function  of  the 
liver.  Before  we  yield  any  modicum  of  assent 
to  this  statement  we  may  observe  that  "  func- 
tion "  is  a  word  with  a  wide  range  of  meaning, 
and  we  must  insist  upon  some  closer  definition. 
Here  materialism  calls  to  its  aid  the  discovery 
of  the  correlation  and  equivalence  of  forces,  one 
of  the  most  stupendous  achievements  of  our 
405 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

century.  We  now  know  that  heat  and  light  and 
electricity  and  actinism  are  not  forces  generically 
distinct  and  isolated  each  from  the  others.  All  are 
specific  modes  of  molecular  motion,  transform- 
able one  into  another  at  any  moment  as  naturally 
as  a  cloud  condenses  into  raindrops.  Any  such 
molecular  motion,  moreover,  may  come  from 
the  arrested  visible  motion  of  a  mass,  and  may 
in  turn  be  liberated  so  as  to  resume  the  form 
of  visible  motion,  as  when  an  electric  current  is 
transformed  into  the  onward  movement  of  the 
trolley  car.  The  change  in  our  conception  of 
Nature  that  has  been  wrought  by  this  wonder- 
ful discovery  is  more  profound  than  all  changes 
that  went  before.  The  balance  in  the  hands  of 
the  chemist  had  already  proved  that  no  matter 
is  ever  lost  but  only  transformed,  and  that  every 
material  form  at  any  moment  visible  owes  its 
existence  to  the  metamorphosis  of  some  pre- 
vious form.  So  now  it  was  further  shown  that 
the  myriad  properties  or  qualities  of  matter  are 
simply  the  expression  of  myriads  of  activities 
which  are  all  in  a  final  analysis  motions ;  that 
DO  motion  is  ever  lost  but  only  transformed, 
and  that  every  kind  of  motion  at  any  moment 
perceptible  —  whether  in  the  form  of  movement 
through  space,  or  of  light,  or  heat,  or  electricity, 
or  the  actinism  that  builds  up  the  green  stuff 
in  the  leaves  of  plants  —  owes  its  existence  to 
the  metamorphosis  of  some  previous  kind  of 
406 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

motion.  Every  living  organism  is  a  marvellous 
aggregate  of  divers  forms  of  matter  performing 
divers  characteristic  motions,  and  the  sum  total 
of  these  motions  is  the  whole  of  life,  as  regarded 
purely  on  its  physical  side.  When  we  take  food 
we  bring  into  the  system  sundry  nitrogenous 
and  hydrocarbon  compounds,  each  of  which  is 
alive  with  little  energies  or  latent  capacities  for 
certain  kinds  of  motion.  The  oxygen  of  the  air, 
especially  in  its  unstable  form  of  ozone,  is  a 
powerful  inciter  of  chemical  motions,  and  when 
we  breathe  it  in,  the  little  latent  capacities  pre- 
sently become  actual  motions.  Some  of  them 
are  realized  in  the  rhythmical  movements  of 
heart  and  lungs,  some  in  the  undulations  that 
sustain  the  animal  temperature,  some  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  tiny  drops  that  collect  in  a  secret- 
ing gland,  some  in  the  repair  of  tissue  by  the 
substitution  of  new  complex  molecules  for  old 
ones  that  are  broken  down,  some  in  the  con- 
traction of  a  group  of  muscles,  some  in  the 
changes  within  the  substance  of  nerve  that  ac- 
company conscious  thought,  sensation,  and  voli- 
tion. Ah,  yes,  here  we  come  to  it  at  last !  We 
do  not  doubt  that  all  these  myriad  motions  are 
members  in  a  series  of  transformations,  wherein 
the  appearance  of  each  results  from  the  disap- 
pearance of  its  predecessors.  We  have  neither 
the  instruments  nor  the  calculus  to  prove  this 
in  the  infinite  multitude  of  details,  but  the  gen- 
407 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

eral  theory  has  been  so  completely  established 
wherever  it  is  accessible  to  instruments  and  cal- 
culus that  we  can  have  no  hesitation  in  granting 
its  universality  wherever  matter  and  motion  are 
concerned  in  any  shape  or  amount.  No  scien- 
tific man  will  for  a  moment  doubt  that  the  little 
vibratory  discharge  between  cerebral  ganglia 
which  accompanies  a  thought  is  one  member  in 
a  series  of  molecular  motions  that  might  be 
measured  and  expressed  in  terms  of  quantity  if 
we  only  possessed  an  apparatus  sufficiently  deli- 
cate and  subtle. 

Now  if  such  is  the  case  with  the  little  physi- 
cal motion  within  the  brain,  how  is  it  with  the 
accompanying  thought  ?  Does  the  correlation 
obtain  between  physical  motions  and  conscious 
feelings  ?  Are  states  of  consciousness  links  in 
the  Protean  series  of  motions,  in  such  wise  that 
the  vibration  within  the  brain  produces  the 
thought  or  feeling?  In  other  words  is  the 
thought  or  feeling  merely  a  transformed  vibra- 
tion ?  Does  a  certain  amount  of  vibration  per- 
ish to  be  replaced  by  an  exact  equivalent  in  the 
shape  of  thought  ?  and  then  does  the  thought 
perish  in  the  act  of  giving  place  to  other  vibra- 
tions which  end  in  a  visible  motion  of  muscles  ? 
as  when,  for  example,  you  hear  the  sound  of  a 
bell  and  start  toward  the  door. 

On  this  point  there  has  been  much  confusion 
of  ideas.  When  I  put  the  question  to  Tyndall 
408 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

in  conversation,  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  he 
seemed  to  think  that  there  must  be  some  such 
completeness  of  correlation  between  the  physi- 
cal and  the  psychical ;  but  his  mind  was  not  at 
ease  on  the  subject.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his 
"  First  Principles,"  rather  cautiously  took  the 
same  direction  and  tried  to  show  how  a  certain 
amount  of  motion  might  be  transformable  into 
a  certain  amount  of  feeling.  He  observed  that 
the  consciousness  of  effort  or  muscular  strain 
in  lifting  a  heavy  weight  is  more  intense  than 
in  lifting  a  light  weight,  and  that  when  a  loud 
sound  sets  up  atmospheric  vibrations  of  great 
amplitude  the  shock  to  our  auditory  conscious- 
ness is  correspondingly  greater  than  in  the  case 
of  a  gentle  sound  which  sets  up  vibrations  of 
small  amplitude.  But  when  he  comes  to  the 
inner  regions  of  thought  and  emotion  which  are 
not  reached  by  percussion  and  strain,  he  is  less 
successful  in  finding  illustrations.  It  is  espe- 
cially worthy  of  note  that  in  the  final  edition  of 
"  First  Principles,"  published  in  this  year  1900 
and  in  Spencer's  eighty-first,  he  goes  very  far 
toward  withdrawing  from  his  original  position, 
while  in  his  Preface  he  calls  attention  to  this 
change  as  one  of  the  most  important  in  the 
book.  In  my  "  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  published 
in  1874,  I  maintained  that  to  prove  the  trans- 
formation of  motion  into  feeling  or  of  feeling 
into  motion  is  in  the  very  nature  of  things  im- 
409 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

possible.  In  order  to  be  convinced  of  this,  let 
us  go  back  a  few  years  and  ask  how  the  great 
doctrine  of  the  correlation  of  forces  became  es- 
tablished. Its  first  absolute  verification  occurred 
about  1 846,  when  Dr.  Joule  showed  "  that  the 
fall  of  772  lbs.  through  one  foot  will  raise  the 
temperature  of  a  pound  of  water  one  degree  of 
Fahrenheit."^  When  this  was  proved  it  gave 
us  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat,  and  the 
theory  acquired  a  truly  scientific  character.  Sim- 
ilar quantitative  correlations  were  established  in 
the  case  of  heat  and  chemical  action  by  Dulong 
and  Petit,  and  in  the  case  of  chemical  action  and 
electricity  by  Faraday.  The  truth  of  the  theory 
is  wholly  a  question  of  quantitative  measure- 
ment. Now  you  can  measure  heat,  you  can 
measure  electricity,  and  since  the  action  of 
nerves  in  all  probability  consists  of  undulatory 
motions  it  is  to  some  extent  measurable,  and 
doubtless  would  be  completely  measurable  had 
we  the  means.  But  when  you  come  to  thoughts 
and  emotions,  I  beg  to  know  how  you  are  going 
to  work  to  give  an  account  of  them  in  foot- 
pounds !  It  is  not  simply  that  we  have  no 
means  at  hand,  no  calculus  equal  to  the  occa- 
sion ;  the  thing  is  absurd  on  its  face.  It  is  as 
true  to-day  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  Descartes 
that  thought  is  devoid  of  extension  and  cannot 
be  submitted  to  mechanical  measurement. 
1  Herbert  Spencer,  First  Principles  (final  ed.),  p.  185. 
410 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

It  appears  to  me,  therefore,  that  what  we 
should  really  find,  if  we  could  trace  in  detail 
the  metamorphosis  of  motions  within  the  body, 
from  the  sense-organs  to  the  brain,  and  thence 
outward  to  the  muscular  system,  would  be 
somewhat  as  follows  :  the  inward  motion,  carry- 
ing the  message  into  the  brain,  would  perish  in 
giving  place  to  the  vibration  which  accompanies 
the  conscious  state ;  and  this  vibration  in  turn 
would  perish  in  giving  place  to  the  outward  mo- 
tion, carrying  the  mandate  out  to  the  muscles. 
If  we  had  the  means  of  measurement  we  could 
prove  the  equivalence  from  step  to  step.  But 
where  would  the  conscious  state,  the  thought 
or  feeling,  come  into  this  circuit  ?  Why,  no- 
where. The  physical  circuit  of  motions  is  com- 
plete in  itself;  the  state  of  consciousness  is  ac- 
cessible only  to  its  possessor.  To  him  it  is  the 
subjective  equivalent  of  the  vibration  within  the 
brain,  whereof  it  is  neither  the  cause  nor  the 
effect,  neither  the  producer  nor  the  offspring, 
but  simply  the  concomitant.  In  other  words 
the  natural  history  of  the  mass  of  activities  that 
are  perpetually  being  concentrated  within  our 
bodies,  to  be  presently  once  more  disintegrated 
and  diffused,  shows  us  a  closed  circle  which  is 
entirely  physical,  and  in  which  one  segment  be- 
longs to  the  nervous  system.  As  for  our  con- 
scious life,  that  forms  no  part  of  the  closed  cir- 
cle but  stands  entirely  outside  of  it,  concentric 
411 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

with  the  segment  which  belongs  to  the  nervous 
system. 

These  conclusions  are  not  at  all  in  harmony 
with  the  materialistic  view  of  the  case.    If  con- 
sciousness is  a  product  of  molecular  motion,  it 
is  a  natural  inference  that  it  must  lapse  when 
the  motion  ceases.     But  if  consciousness  is  a 
kind  of  existence  which  within  our  experience 
accompanies  a  certain  phase  of  molecular  mo- 
tion, then  the  case  is  entirely  altered,  and  the 
possibility  or  probability  of  the  continuance  of 
the  one  without  the  other  becomes  a  subject 
for  further  inquiry.   Materialists  sometimes  de- 
clare that  the  relation  of  conscious  intelligence 
to  the  brain  is  hke  that  of  music  to  the  harp, 
and  when  the  harp  is  broken  there  can  be  no 
more  music.    An  opposite  view,  long  familiar 
to  us,  is  that  the  conscious  soul  is  an  emanation 
from  the  Divine  Intelligence  that  shapes  and 
sustains  the  world,  and  during  its  temporary 
imprisonment  in  material  forms  the  brain  is  its 
instrument  of  expression.    Thus  the  soul  is  not 
the  music,  but  the  harper  ;  and  obviously  this 
view  is  in  harmony  with  the  conclusions  which 
I  have  deduced  from  the  correlation  of  forces. 
Upon  these  conclusions  we  cannot  directly 
base  an  argument  sustaining  man's  immortality, 
but  we  certainly  remove  the  only  serious  ob- 
jection that  has  ever  been  alleged  against  it. 
We  leave  the  field  clear  for  those  general  con- 
412 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

siderations  of  philosophic  analogy  and  moral 
probability  which  are  all  the  guides  upon  which 
we  can  call  for  help  in  this  arduous  inquiry. 
But  it  may  be  suggested  at  this  point  that  per- 
haps our  argument  has  acquired  a  wider  scope 
than  was  at  first  contemplated.  Consciousness 
is  not  peculiar  to  man,  but  is  possessed  in  some 
degree  by  the  greater  portion  of  the  animal 
kingdom.  Among  the  higher  birds  and  mam- 
mals the  amount  of  conscious  life  is  very  con- 
siderable, and  here  too  it  must  be  argued  that 
consciousness  is  not  a  product  of  molecular  mo- 
tion in  the  nervous  system  but  its  concomitant. 
The  same  argument  which  removes  the  objec- 
tion to  immortahty  for  man  removes  it  also  for 
an  indefinite  number  of  animal  species.  What, 
then,  is  to  be  said  of  the  reasonableness  of  sup- 
posing a  future  life  for  sundry  lower  animals  ? 
and  if  we  were  to  reach  a  negative  conclusion 
in  their  case,  while  reaching  a  positive  conclu- 
sion in  the  case  of  man,  on  what  principle  are 
we  to  draw  the  line  ?  Sometimes  we  hear  this 
question  propounded  as  a  difficulty  in  the  Dar- 
winian theory  of  man's  origin.  How  could 
immortal  man  have  been  produced  through 
heredity  from  an  ephemeral  brute  ? 

The  difficulty  is  one  of  the  sort  which  we 
are  apt  to  encounter  when  we  try  to  designate 
absolute  beginnings  and  to  mark  off  hard  and 
fast  lines,  for  in  Nature  there  are  no  such  things. 

413 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

Voltaire  asked  the  same  kind  of  question  more 
than  a   hundred  years  before   Darwinism  had 
been  heard  of.    When  does  the  immortal  soul 
of  the  human  individual  come  into  existence  ? 
Is  it  at  the  moment  of  conception,  or  when  the 
new-born  babe  begins  to   breathe,  or  at  some 
moment  between,  or  even  perhaps  at  some  era 
of  early  childhood  when    moral  responsibility 
can  be  said  to  have  begun  ?     Some  of  the  an- 
swers  to   these  questions  would   transform   an 
ephemeral  creature  into  an  immortal  one  in  the 
same  person.     The  most  proper  answer  is  a 
frank  confession  of  ignorance.     Whether  it  be 
in  the  individual  or  in  the  race,  we  cannot  tell 
just  where  the  soul  comes  in.     A  due  heed  to 
Nature's  analogies,  however,  is  helpful  in  this 
connection.    The  maxim  that  Nature  makes  no 
leaps  is   far  from  true.     Nature's  habit  is  to 
make  prodigious  leaps,  but  only  after  long  pre- 
paration.    Slowly  rises  the  water  in  the  tank, 
inch  by  inch  through  many  a  weary  hour,  until 
at  length  it  overflows  and  straightway  vast  sys- 
tems of  machinery  are  awakened  into  rumbling 
life.  Slowly  grows  the  eccentricity  of  the  ellipse 
as  you  shift  its  position   in  the  cone,  and  still 
the  nature  of  the  curve  is  not  essentially  varied, 
when  suddenly,  presto  !    one  more  little  shift, 
and  the  finite  ellipse  becomes  an  infinite  hyper- 
bola mocking  our  feeble  powers  of  conception 
as  it  speeds  away  on  its  everlasting  career.  Per- 
414 


LIFE  EVERLASTING 

haps  in  our  ignorance  such  analogies  may  help 
us  to  realize  the  possibility  that  steadily  de- 
veloping ephemeral  conscious  life  may  reach  a 
critical  point  where  it  suddenly  puts  on  immor- 
tality. 

If  this  suggestion  is  a  sound  one,  we  must 
probably  regard  the  conscious  life  of  animals  as 
only  the  ephemeral  adumbration  of  that  which 
comes  to  maturity  in  man.  The  considerations 
adduced  this  evening  must  convince  us  that  we 
are  at  perfect  liberty  to  treat  the  question  of 
man's  immortality  in  the  disinterested  spirit  of 
the  naturalist.  In  the  course  of  evolution  there 
is  no  more  philosophical  difficulty  in  man's  ac- 
quiring immortal  life  than  in  his  acquiring  the 
erect  posture  and  articulate  speech.  In  my  little 
book  "The  Destiny  of  Man"  I  insisted  upon 
the  dramatic  tendency  or  divine  purpose  indi- 
cated in  the  long  cosmic  process  which  has 
manifestly  from  the  outset  aimed  at  the  produc- 
tion and  perfection  of  the  higher  spiritual  attri- 
butes of  humanity.  In  another  little  book, 
"  Through  Nature  to  God,"  I  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  belief  in  an  Unseen  World,  es- 
pecially associated  with  the  moral  significance  of 
life,  was  coeval  with  the  genesis  of  Man,  and  had 
played  a  predominating  part  in  his  development 
ever  since,  and  I  argued  that  under  such  cir- 
cumstances the  belief  must  be  based  upon  an 
eternal  reality,  since  a  contrary  supposition  is 


STUDIES  IN  RELIGION 

negatived  by  all  that  we  know  of  the  habits  and 
methods  of  the  cosmic  process  of  Evolution. 
No  time  is  left  here  to  repeat  these  arguments, 
but  I  hope  enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  the 
probability  that  the  patient  study  of  evolution 
is  likely  soon  to  supply  the  basis  for  a  Natural 
Theology  more  comprehensive,  more  profound, 
and  more  hopeful  than  could  formerly  have  been 
imagined.  The  Nineteenth  Century  has  borne 
the  brunt,  the  Twentieth  will  reap  the  fruition. 


NOTES 
A.  —  MEDITATIONS   OF  A   SAVAGE 

IN  the  presence  of  the  great  mystery  of  existence, 
the  thoughts  of  the  untutored  savage  are  not  al- 
ways so  very  unlike  those  of  civilized  men,  as 
we  may  see  from  the  following  pathetic  words  of  a 
Kafir,  named  Sekese,  in  conversation  with  a  French 
traveller,  M.  Arbrouseille,  on  the  subject  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  :  — 

'^  Your  tidings,"  said  this  uncultivated  barbarian, 
"  are  what  I  want,  and  I  was  seeking  before  I  knew 
you,  as  you  shall  hear  and  judge  for  yourself.  Twelve 
years  ago  I  went  to  feed  my  flocks  ;  the  weather  was 
hazy.  I  sat  down  upon  a  rock  and  asked  myself  sor- 
rowful questions ;  yes,  sorrowful,  because  I  was  un- 
able to  answer  them.  Who  has  touched  the  stars  with 
his  hands  —  on  what  pillars  do  they  rest,  I  asked  my- 
self. The  waters  never  weary,  they  know  no  other 
law  than  to  flow  without  ceasing  from  morning  till 
night  and  from  night  till  morning ;  but  where  do  they 
stop,  and  who  makes  them  flow  thus  ?  The  clouds 
also  come  and  go,  and  burst  in  water  over  the  earth. 
Whence  come  they  —  who  sends  them  ?  The  divin- 
ers certainly  do  not  give  us  rain ;  for  how  could  they 
do  it  ?  and  why  do  not  I  see  them  with  my  own  eyes 
when  they  go  up  to  heaven  to  fetch  it  ?    I  cannot  see 


NOTES 

the  wind ;  but  what  is  it  ?  who  brings  it,  makes  it 
blow  and  roar  and  terrify  us  ?  Do  I  know  how  the 
corn  sprouts  ?  Yesterday  there  was  not  a  blade  in  my 
field,  to-day  I  returned  to  the  field  and  found  some  ; 
who  can  have  given  to  the  earth  the  wisdom  and  the 
power  to  produce  it  ?  Then  I  buried  my  head  in  both 
my  hands."  —  Cited    in    Picton,  Mystery  of  Matter^ 

p.   222. 

B.  —  THE  NAME  GOD 
None  of  the  dictionaries  offer  a  satisfactory  expla- 
nation of  the  word  God.  It  was  once  commonly  sup- 
posed to  be  related  to  the  adjective  good^  but  Grimm 
long  ago  showed  that  this  connection  is,  to  say  the 
least,  very  improbable.  It  has  also  been  sought  to 
identify  it  with  Persian  Khoda,  from  Zend  qvadata^  Skr. 
svadata^  Lat.  a  se  datus^  in  which  the  idea  is  that  of 
self-existence ;  but  this  fanciful  etymology  was  ex- 
ploded by  Aufrecht.  The  arrant  guesswork  of  Don- 
aldson, who  would  connect  God  with  KaK6%,  and  ^cos 
with  Tid-qixi  (New  Cratylus,  p.  710),  scarcely  deserves 
mention  in  these  days.  Among  the  more  scientific 
philologists  of  our  time,  August  Fick,  in  treating  of 
the  "Wortschatz  der  germanischen  Spracheinheit," 
simply  refers  God  to  a  primitive  Teutonic  gutha^  and 
says  no  more  about  it.  (Vergl.  Woerterbuch  der  indo- 
germanischen  Sprachen,  III.  107.)  He  is  followed  by 
Skeat  (Etymological  Dictionary,  p.  238),  who  adds 
that  there  is  "  no  connection  with  good."  Eduard 
Miiller  says  :  "  So  bedenklich  die  zusammenstellung 
mit  good^  so  fraglich  ist  doch  auch  noch  die  urver- 
wandtschaft  mit  pers.  Khoda  gott,  oder  skr.  gudha 
mysterium,  oder  skr.  guddha  purus  j  Heyne :  '  als  sich 
418 


NOTES 

verhulknder,  unsichtbarer,  vgl.  skr.  guh  fur  gudh  ce- 
lare.'  "     (Woerterbuch    der    englischen    Sprache,  p. 

456.) 

Max  Miiller  has  much  more  plausibly  suggested  that 
God  wzs  formerly  a  heathen  name  for  the  Deity,  which 
passed  into  Christian  usage,  like  the  Latin  Deus. 
(Science  of  Language,  6th  ed.  IL  317.)  Following 
this  hint,  I  suggested,  several  years  ago  (North  Amer. 
Review,  Oct.  1869,  p.  354),  that  God  is  probably 
identical  with  Wodan  or  Odin^  the  name  of  the  great 
Northern  deity,  the  chief  object  of  the  worship  of  our 
forefathers.  This  relation  of  an  initial  G  to  an  initial 
ff^  is  a  very  common  one ;  as  for  example  Gulllaume 
and  JVilliam^  guerre  and  war^  guardian  and  warden^ 
guile  and  wile.  The  same  thing  is  seen  in  Armorican 
guasta  and  Ital.  guastare.,  as  compared  with  Lat.  vas- 
tare.,  Eng.  waste ;  and  in  the  Eng.  quick^  Goth,  quivs, 
hzt.vivus.  In  Erchempert's  Historia  Langobardorum, 
II,  Pertz,  in.  245,  we  find  Ludoguicus  for  Ludovicus, 
Not  only  is  this  relation  a  common  one,  but  there  are 
plenty  of  specific  instances  of  it  in  the  case  of  Wodan, 
In  Germany  we  have  the  town  names  of  Godesberg^ 
Gudenberg^  and  Godensholt^  all  derived  from  Wodan.  In 
the  Westphalian  dialect  Wednesday  ("  day  of  Wodan  ") 
is  called  Godenstag  or  Gunstag ;  in  Nether-Rhenish, 
Gudenstag ;  in  Flemish,  Goenstag.  See  Thorpe,  North- 
ern Alythol.  I.  229  ;  Taylor,  Words  and  Places,  323  ; 
and  cf.  Grimm,  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Sprache,  296. 
The  Westphalian  Saxons  wrote  both  Guodan  and  Gu- 
dan.  Odin  was  also  called  Godin  (Laing,  Heimskringla, 
I.  74),  and  Paulus  Diaconus  tells  us  that  the  Lombards 
pronounced  Wodan  as  Guodan.  In  view  of  such  a  con- 
419 


NOTES 

vergence  of  proofs,  I  am  surprised  that  attention  was 
not  long  ago  called  to  this  etymology. 

Wodan  was  originally  the  storm-spirit  or  animating 
genius  of  the  wind,  answering  in  many  respects  to  the 
Greek  Hermes  and  the  Vedic  Sarameyas.  See  my 
Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  26,  43,  44,  47,  91,  168, 
276;  and  cf.  Mackay,  Religious  Development  of  the 
Greeks  and  Hebrews,  i.  260-273. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Agassiz,  Louis,  his  theistic  objection 
to  Darwinism,  i6o,  162;  argu- 
ment from  design  in  his  Essay  on 
Classification,  177. 

Agnostics,  unintelligent  use  of  the 
term,    90,   91  ;  and    first    cause, 

339- 

Agriculture  as  a  factor  in  the  develop- 
ment of  society,  56,  57. 

Ahriman,  as  accountable  for  sin  in 
the  world,  179,  234  5  as  the  ser- 
pent in  Eden,  225,  226  ;  idea  of 
the    devil    drawn     largely    from, 

*35- 
Alembert,  J.  le  R.  d',  atheism  of, 

331-3.33.  395- 

Alexandria,  comparatively  modem 
aspect  of  its  intellectual  character 
before  the  Christian  era,  139. 

Allen,  A.  V.  G.,  on  Athanasian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  147. 

Alphonso,  king  of  Castile,  criticises 
the  creation,  232. 

Altruism,  finds  its  origin  in  the  pro- 
longation of  infancy,  51,  318;  in 
man  less  highly  developed  than  in- 
telligence, 5 1 ,  70 ;  development  of, 
through  the  family,  54  ;  through 
the  clan,  306  ;  no  intellectual 
element  in  its  origin  and  develop- 
ment, 307,  308  ;  shadowed  forth 
in  the  protection  of  offspring,  317; 
in  the  establishment  of  maternal 
affection,  318,  320.  &e  Morality 
and  Ethics, 

America,  federal  union  in,  63. 

American  Political  Ideas,  on  Roman 
adoption  of  Greek  divinities,  137; 
on  elimination  of  warfare,  208. 


Anatomy,  comparative,  foundations 
of,  laid  in  recent  times,  124. 

Anaxagoras,  139. 

Ancestor  worship,  as  the  earliest 
form  of  religious  worship,  136  ; 
mingling  of,  with  nature  worship, 
136,  145;  dominant  in  the  de- 
velopment of  Chinese,  Japanese, 
and  Roman  religions,  137;  the 
theism  reached  through  the  me- 
dium of,  150,  152,  170. 

Animals,  their  shrinking  from  death, 

384  ;  their  sense  of  bereavement, 

385  ;  future  life  of,  413. 
Animism,  and  a  quasi-human  God, 

349  ;  of  primitive  man,  comprises 
a  theism  and  belief  in  an  unseen 
world,  353. 

Antagonism,  element  of,  necessary 
to  consciousness,  249-252. 

Anthropomorphic  theism,  compared 
with  cosmic  theism,  98,  170; 
wide  extent  of,  171  ;  of  Paley 
and  the  Bridgewater  treatises,  175, 
1835  cannot  survive  the  test  of 
modern  knowledge,  186. 

Anthropomorphism,  must  have  a 
place  in  theism,  170,  173,  186, 
351  ;  in  the  present  day,  173. 

Apes,  man  differs  little  in  structure 
but  enormously  in  intellect  from 
higher,  17,  18,  2605  brain  of, 
31  ;  infancy  of  manlike,  36  ; 
sense   of  bereavement  in  higher, 

385- 

Archaeology,  greatest  achievements 
in,  belong  to  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 125. 

Aristotle,  his  remark  that  nothing 


423 


INDEX 


is  out  of  place  or  interpolated  in 
nature,  242,  25'- 

Art,  evolution  of,  41,  43. 

Aryano  Vaejo  as  the  location  of 
Eden,  225. 

Asceticism  condemned  by  Clement, 
146. 

Ascidian,  degeneration  of  the  species, 
277. 

Ascoli,  G.  I.,  his  researches  in  phi- 
lology, 125. 

Astarte,  a  nature  god,  140. 

Astronomy,  advance  in,  during  the 
nineteenth  century,  123  ;  teaches 
the  unity  of  nature,  241 . 

Athanasian  Deity.    See  under  Greeks. 

Athanasius,  and  Augustine,  98  ;  idea 
of  God  as  conceived  by,  106, 
146  ;  his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
147;  theism  of,  162,  186. 

Atheism,  condemned,  4,  5  ;  its  con- 
nection with  materialism,  4  ;  its 
presentation  of  the  world  of  phe- 
nomena, 92,  93  ;  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  128  ;  as  following 
the  theism  which  places  God  out- 
side his  universe,  1 54  ;  French, 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  330- 
336,  394;  in  Romanist  and  Pro- 
testant countries,  331  ;  its  influ- 
ence   on  succeeding    generations, 

395- 
Atheist,   name   used  as  a   term    of 

abuse,  91. 

Atoms,  difficulty  of  conceiving  the 
properties  of,  347. 

Aufrecht,  Theodor,  on  derivation  of 
the  name  God,  418. 

Augustine,  and  Athanasius,  com- 
pared, 98  ;  his  conception  of 
Deity,  155  ;  his  doctrine  of  ori- 
ginal sm,  155-157;  his  doctrine 
of  total  depravity,  180;  theism 
of,  cannot  stand  the  test  of  modern 
knowledge,  186. 

Australian,  the,  in  mental  and  moral 
development  is  more  like  the  ani- 
mals than  like  civilized  man,  49. 

Automatism  of  repeated  action,  293. 


Baal,  a  nature  god,  140. 
Baby's  idea  of  the  appearance  of  his 
mother,    used  as   an  illustration, 

383- 
Baer,  Ernst  von,  his  formula  of  em- 
bryonic development,  197. 
Beliefs  tested   by  their  power  of  re- 
sisting change,  189. 
Bell,   Sir  Charles,  his  acceptance  of 

the  argument  from  design,  175. 
Benevolence,  absolute,  of  the  Creator, 
as  presented  in  the  argument  from 
design,  1 77-1 81. 
Bereavement,   manifestation    of,    in 
animals,  as  indicating  some  recog- 
nition of  death,  385. 
Berecynthian    Mother,   worship    of, 
continued  in  worship  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  143. 
Biblical  philology,  advance  of,  in  the 

nineteenth  century,  126. 
Biology,  modern,  beginnings  of,  124. 
Birds,  sense  of  bereavement  in,  385. 
Bitterness  cannot  exist  without  sweet- 
ness, 250. 
Brain,   growth   of,   in  the  ancestors 
of  man,    17  ;    consciousness   and 
molecubr  motion  in  the,  30,  77, 
344,    408—412  ;     formation    of, 
31.      See  Cerebellum    and    Cere- 
brum. 
Bridgewater  treatises,   anthropomor- 
phic theism  of,    175  ;  arguments 
of,  overthrown  by  theory  of  natiual 
selection,  183. 
Browning,  Robert,  his  Calibatty  281. 
Bruno,     Giordano,    persecution    of, 

natural,  6. 
Brute-inheritance  as  original  sin,  72. 
Buchner,  Louis,  echoes  La  Mettrie, 

395-  .        ,. 

Buddhist  conception  of  immortality, 

390- 
Buffon,   G.  L.  Leclerc,   Comte  de, 
character    of  his  atheism,    331- 

333j  395- 
Butler,    Joseph,     his     philosophical 
writings  classed  among  the  glories 
of  English  literature,  335. 


424 


INDEX 


Cabanis,  P.  J.  G.,  his  unscientific 
remark  that  the  brain  secretes 
thought,  77. 

Caliban's  philosophy,  281,  319. 

Calvinism,  contrasted  with  cosmic 
theism,  170;  idea  of  God  in, 
238. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  his  remark  on 
"an  absentee  God,"  151. 

Cat,  brain  of,  31  ;  its  ■vibrissa  or 
organs  of  touch,  364. 

Cause,  legitimate  use  of  the  term, 
160. 

Cave-men,  37. 

Cerebellum,  action  of,  with  regard 
to  consciousness,  30  ;  size  of,  in 
different  animals,  31. 

Cerebral  differences  between  civilized 
man  and  savage,  31,  49. 

Cerebrum,  action  of,  with  regard  to 
consciousness,  30  ;  size  of,  in  dif- 
ferent animals,  31  ;  increase  of 
surface,  from  action  of  natural  se- 
lection, 36. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  his  acceptance 
of    the    argument    from    design, 

175- 

Character,  knowledge  of  sin  essen- 
tial to  the  formation  of,  252  ; 
perfecting  of,  through  evolution, 
313. 

Chemical  science,  advance  in,  has 
remodelled  our  conceptions  of  the 
universe,  123  ;  teaches  the  unity 
of  nature,  196,  241. 

ChiUingworth,  William,  his  philoso- 
phical writings  classed  among  the 
glories  of  English  literature,  335. 

Chlorophyll,  importance  of,  to  ani- 
mal life,  272,  360. 

Christ,  kingdom  of,  on  the  earth, 
84,  208. 

Christ  of  Dogma,  relation  of  the 
essay  to  a  contemplated  work  on 
Christianity,  108,  109. 

Christianity,  as  the  message  brought 
by  the  teachings  of  modern  science, 
73  ;  as  encrusted  with  pagan  no- 
tions, 143  y  the  result  of  its  wide 


acceptance,  143  ;  its  theory  of  the 
existence  of  evil,  179. 

Church,  its  opposition  to  the  teach- 
ings of  modern  science,  5. 

Civilization,  when  its  progress  be- 
came the  dominant  aspect  of  evo- 
lution, 18,  290  ;  the  working  of 
evolution  in,  43,  323  ;  altruism 
and  intellectual  development  in, 
compared,  51  ;  place  of  warfare 
in>  51-55;  clan  stage  of,  54; 
struggle  for  existence  in,  278. 
See  Society. 

Clan,  development  of,  from  the 
family,  54,  302  ;  ethical  senti- 
ment in,  54,  302,  305,  306. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  God  as  con- 
ceived by,  98,  99,  146,  162,170. 

Clifford,  W.  R.,  on  a  universe  of 
mind-stuff,  200,  201. 

Codfish,  multiplication  of,  315. 

Commerce  as  a  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment of  society,  57. 

Comte,  Auguste,  his  critical  turn  of 
mind,  232  ;  gulf  between  his  phi- 
losophy and  Spencer's,  237; 
metaphysical  problems  ignored  in 
his  Positi've  Philosophy,  396. 

Conceptions,  our  power  of  framing, 
limited  by  our  experience,  187, 
344-348,  399,  402. 

Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  the 
Idea  of  God  delivered  before  the, 
89  ;  Destiny  of  Man  delivered 
before  the,  99. 

Condorcet,  M.  J.  A.  N.  Caritat, 
Marquis    de,    atheism    of,    331— 

333- 
Conflict,  so-called,  between  religion 
and  science,  158—168  ;  origin  of, 
traced  to  Augustine  theism,  162  ; 
origin  of,  traced  to  the  primitive 
idea  of  volition  in  physical  pheno- 
mena, 164-166;  will  disappear 
on  the  adoption  of  the  idea  of  an 
ever-present  God,  167  ;  disappear- 
ance of,  will  be  one  of  the  greatest 
benefits  ever  conferred  on  humaa- 
ity,  186. 


425 


INDEX 


Conquest,  without  Incorporation, 
60  ;  with  incorporarion,  61,  63. 

Conscience,  beginnings  of,  263. 

Consciousness,  not  the  product  of 
material  particles,  27,  343,  344  ; 
dawning  of,  in  the  animal  world, 
28,  32  ;  perception  and  deter- 
mination of  movement  in,  29  ; 
the  physical  condition  of  the  brain 
necessary  for  the  manifestation  of, 
30  ;  states  of,  and  the  Power 
which  causes  them,  201  ;  exists 
by  virtue  of  incessant  change, 
245-248  ;  feature  of  discrimina- 
tion in,  248—252  ;  and  molecular 
motion  in  the  brain,  344,  408- 
412  ;  survival  of,  apart  from 
material  conditions,  inconceivable, 
401,  402  ;  relation  between  the 
nervous  system  and,  b  one  of  con- 
comitance, 41 1,  413  ;  in  animals, 

413- 

Conservation  of  energy,  123. 

Constancy  of  nature,  8 1 . 

Contrast,  element  of,  necessary  to 
consciousness,  249. 

Copernican  theory,  and  contemporary 
theology,  6  ;  and  revolution  in 
man's  view  of  his  relation  to  the 
universe,  9,  393. 

Correlation  of  forces  and  molecular 
motion  in  the  brain,  343,  407- 
410. 

Cosmic  forces,  mental  conception  of, 
must  be  symbolic,  192. 

Coemic  process,  phrase  used  by  Hux- 
ley in  a  restricted  sense  as  equiva- 
lent   to    natural    selection,    2 1 6, 

285  ;  seeming  wastefulness  of, 
276-280  ;  Huxley  on,  283  ;  re- 
lation of,    to    moral  ends,    283— 

286  ;  traced  in  the  development 
of  man,  287-303  ;  in  the  de- 
velopment of  moral  ideas,  304- 
308,  311-314,  3"-324- 

Cosmic  Roots  of  Lo<ve  and  Self- 
Sacrifice,  269-324;  essay  on, 
slightly  changed  from  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  oration  of  June,  1895, 


215  ;  a  reply  to  Huxley's  Ro- 
manes lecture,  215. 

Cosmic  theism,  adoption  of  the 
term,  98  ;  contrast  between  an- 
thropomorphic theism  and,  98, 
1 70  ;  true  character  of,  indicated, 
102  ;  presents  the  idea  of  God  as 
immanent  in  the  universe,  169; 
how  affected  by  modern  know- 
ledge, 186. 

Cosmical  weather,  92. 

Cow,  maternal  instinct  of,  301, 
385. 

Creator,  as  presented  in  the  argu- 
ment from  design,  177—181  ;  his 
power  conceived  as  limited  by  the 
vilenessof  matter,  180,  232,  236, 
238  ;  as  the  creator  of  evil,  252. 
See  God  and  Deity. 

Creeds,  revolution  in,  caused  by  the 
advance  of  modern  science,  128, 
129  ;  the  origin  and  forms  of, 
230,  231. 

Cumaean  Sibyl,  leaves  of,  as  a  simile 
of  our  limited  comprehension  of 
nature's  laws,  220. 

Cuvier,  G.  C.  L.  F.  D.,  Baron,  his 
classification  of  past  and  present 
forms  of  animal  life,  1 24. 

Dante  Alighieri,  position  of  man  in 
his  Di'vine  Comedy,  3,  lOO  ;  his 
description  of  the  story  of  Nature 
as  bound  in  a  mystic  volume,  used 
as  a  simile  of  Nature's  laws,  220, 
221  ;  quotation  from  his  Para- 
diso,  270  ;  his  poetry  unintelligi- 
ble to  the  best  French  minds  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  332  ;  his 
representation  of  the  unseen  world, 

392.  399- 

Darwinian  theory,  facts  of,  with  re- 
ference to  man,  10  ;  replaces  as 
much  teleology  as  it  destroys,  80, 
204,  206  ;  theistic  objection  to, 
158,  160  ;  as  a  part  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  183.  See 
Natural  St-'lection. 

Darwinism,    and   Other   Essays,  on 


426 


INDEX 


genesis  of  man,  17  ;  on  con- 
sciousness, 27  ;  on  a  future  life, 
78,  81  ;  on  a  dramatic  tendency 
in  the  universe,  80,  205  ;  on  the 
legitimate  business  of  science, 
162. 

Death,  as  the  dawning  of  true  life, 
82  ;  conception  of,  an  attribute 
of  man  alone,  384,  386  ;  idea 
of,  coeval  with  the  beginning  of 
humanity,  388  ;  conception  of, 
coupled  with  that  of  an  unseen 
world  in  primitive  thought,  389. 

Degeneration  of  species,  277. 

Deity,  term  unknoivahh  as  applied 
to,  104,  106  ;  how  far  knowable 
and  unknowable,  106,  107,  339  ; 
supposed  substitution  of  physical 
force  for  direct  action  of,  158, 
160;  as  quasi-psychical  in  nature, 
188,349.  &«  God,  Idea  of  God, 
Theism. 

Demiurgus,  a  Gnostic  personification 
of  the  Creator,  234. 

Dependence  of  man,  its  part  in  the 
theistic  idea,  131,  138. 

Descartes,  Rene,  his  hypothesis  that 
animals  are  automata,  28  j  his 
geometry  as  aid  to  progress, 
121. 

Descent  through  modifications,  facts 
of,  with  reference  to  man,  10. 

Design,  argument  from,  as  explain- 
ing scientific  facts  in  the  organic 
world,  176,  177,  182  ;  weakness 
in,  pointed  out  by  Mill,  177, 
238  ;  its  presentation  of  the  Crea- 
tor, 1 77-1 81  5  overthrow  of,  by 
natural  selection,  182,  204  ;  as 
set  forth  by  Voltaire,  334. 

Destins  of  Man,  The,  3-84  ;  re- 
marks upon  the  teleology  of,  99, 
41  5  ;  proves  that  evolution  gives 
man  the  highest  place  in  the  uni- 
verse, loi  ;  printed  exactly  as  de- 
livered at  Concord,  109;  argu- 
ment of,  repeated  in  E-verlasting 
Reality  of  Religion,  215. 

Devil,  as  created  by  the  Deity,  179; 


as  creator  of  the  world,  in  Gnostic 
theory,  180;  Christian  concep- 
tion of,  drawn  largely  from  Ahri- 
man,  235. 

Diderot,  Denis,  character  of  his 
atheism,  331-333,  395. 

Differences  in  kinds  due  to  the  accu- 
mulation of  differences  in  degree, 
22,  38. 

Discrimination,  element  of,  in  the 
production  of  consciousness,  248— 

251. 

Disembodied  souls,  our  inability  to 
conceive  of,  403. 

Divine  action,  theory  of,  depicting 
God  as  swayed  by  human  passions, 
114;  theory  of,  as  revealed  in 
the  workings  of  the  visible  uni- 
verse, 114;  manifested  in  all 
phenomena,  161,  167,  168  5  as 
opposed  to  natural  law,  165,  I  66  ; 
as  the  cause  of  special  phenomena, 
165. 

Divine  Power  as  curtailed  by  power 
of  evil,  234,  235. 

Dogs,  sense  of  bereavement  in, 
385. 

Donaldson,  J.  W.,  on  derivation 
of  name  God,  in  Nc'w  CratyluSf 
418. 

Dragons  of  the  Jurassic  period,  319— 
321. 

Dramatic  tendency  in  nature,  not 
recognized  in  universe  as  a  whole, 
80,  205  ;  indication  of,  on  the 
earth,  80,  205  j  not  recognized 
by  atheism,  92  ;  recognized  in 
theism,  94  ;  may  be  recognized 
as  a  result  of  a  scientific  investi- 
gation, 103  ;  recognized  in  the 
unity  of  nature  animated  by  the 
spirit  of  God,  220,  242. 

Dreams  and  ghosts  in  primitive 
thought,  381. 

Duck-bill,  Australian,  a  relic  of  an- 
cient incipient  mammality,  32J. 

Dulong,  P.  L.,  demonstrated  the  law 
of  correlation  of  forces  in  heat, 
410. 


427 


INDEX 


Earth,  placed  at  the  centre  of  the 
universe  in  the  philosophy  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  3  ;  place  given  it  in 
modern  science,  7  ;  as  the  brief 
abode  of  the  soul,  7  ;  subordinated 
to  man,  20  ;  mental  conception 
of,  must  be  symbolic,  192. 

Easter  an  adoption  from  nature-wor- 
ship, 143. 

Echoes  as  explained  by  theory  of 
other  self,  135. 

Eclipse  and  sun-myth,  392. 

Eden,  rarely  alluded  to  in  Old  Testa- 
ment literature,  225  ;  as  a  Persian 
paradise,  225.  See  Serpent  in 
Eden. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  his  philosophical 
writings  classed  among  the  glories 
of  English  literature,  335. 

Egyptians  show  the  result  of  an  ori- 
ental type  of  empire,  60. 

Electricity,  advance  in,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  122. 

Ellipse  used  in  illustration  of  nature's 
workings,  414. 

Elohim,  in  Hebrew  religion,  140  ; 
man's  dealings  with,  226,  227. 

Emanations,  influence  of  Gnostic 
theory  of,  234. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  quotation  from, 
on  the  subject  of  a  broad  view  of 
life,  323. 

Energy,  creative,  the  soul  as  a  pro- 
duct of,  67,  80  ;  man  as  the  con- 
summation of,  75,  78  ;  Spencer  on 
the,  104  ;  as  God,  104. 

England,  federation  in,  63  ;  politi- 
cal formation  of,  compared  with 
that  of  France,  63,  64 ;  colonies 
of,  64. 

English  philosophical  thought  com- 
pared with  French,  335. 

Environment,  adjustment  of  life  to, 
361-363;  adjustment  of  ideas  to, 
366. 

Epikuros,  his  idea  of  gods  in  their 
relation  to  men,  I  52. 

Epilepsy  as  explained  by  theory  of 
other  self,  135. 


Ether,  luminiferous,  difficulty  oS 
conceiving  the  properties  of,  347, 
348,  403. 

Ethical  process,  and  cosmic  process, 
284-286,  311,  323;  the  goal 
of,  is  the  perfection  of  human 
character,  313,  314. 

Ethical    trend,    omnipresent,    322— 

324- 

Ethics,  and  religion  inseparable,  310, 
357 ;  and  the  ghost-world  of 
primitive  men,  356,  380,  381; 
and  the  unseen  world,  356,  357; 
genesis  of,  368.  See  Morality, 
and  Altruism. 

Euripides  on  death  as  the  dawning 
of  true  life,  82,  378. 

Eve  and  the  serpent  in  Eden,  225. 

Everlasting  Reality  of  Religion,  217, 
218,  325-373. 

Evil,  and  the  omnipotent  creator, 
178,  231  ;  theory  of,  in  the  Zen- 
davesta,  179,  234;  in  Christian- 
ity, 179,  235;  mystery  of,  223— 
267  ;  existence  of,  a  discouraging 
problem  in  all  ages,  229,  231  ; 
Gnosac  theory  of,  234;  and  good, 
distinct  sources  postulated  for,  235, 
240 ;  necessary  to  the  existence 
of  morality,  251,  265;  God  the 
creator  of,  252  ;  Fiske's  argu- 
ment in  regard  to,  misunderstood, 
253—255  ;  the  course  of,  traced 
in  spiritual  evolution,  265,  266. 

Evolution,  in  relation  to  man,  17, 
18  ;  in  relation  to  the  human 
soul,  19,  20,  207;  of  physical 
members,  39,  40 ;  of  science, 
40,  43  ;  is  an  advance  toward 
true  salvation,  72  ;  teachings  of, 
supply  the  clue  to  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  and  Paul,  73-75,  209  ;  as 
working  out  a  mighty  teleology, 
102  ;  memorable  epochs  in  or- 
ganic, 119;  the  laws  of  nature 
are  due  to  the  process  of,  184, 
185  ;  illustrates  the  unity  of 
nature,  197  ;  varied  processes  of, 
expressed    in    a  single    universal 


428 


INDEX 


formula,  197  ;  spiritual  perfection 
the  true  goal  of,  210,  312-314  ; 
theory  of,  first  applied  on  a  grand 
scale  in  Spencer's  Principles  of 
Psychology,  219  ;  process  of,  is 
the  cosmic  process,  285  ;  in  refer- 
ence to  plant  life,  361,  362;  in 
development  of  the  senses,  364- 
366  ;  in  origin  and  development 
of  ethics,  368,  369. 
Evolution,  doctrine  of,  gives  man 
the  highest  place  in  the  universe, 
75,  100  ;  failure  of  Outlines  of 
Cosmic  Philosophy  to  sum  up  the 
full  purpose  of,  100,  101  ;  alters 
our  conception  of  the  universe, 
183  ;  teleological  aspect  of,  204, 
206  ;  is  not  responsible  for  mis- 
taken opinions  of  evolutionists, 
Z18  ;  influence  of,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  237  ;  the  ever- 
lasting reality  of  religion  traced  in, 

3io>  359-371- 

Excursions  of  an  E-volutionist,  on 
consciousness,  27  ;  on  intellectual 
attainments,  41  ;  on  a  future  life, 
76  ;  on  prehistoric  man,  125  ;  on 
pagan  ideas  in  Christianity,  143  ; 
on  mind-stuff,  201. 

Experience,  as  involved  in  increase 
of  intelligence,  25,  294,  295;  as 
a  factor  in  the  career  of  man, 
38  ;  bounds  of,  transgressed  in  an 
assumption  of  a  future  life,  78  ; 
limits  our  powers  of  conception, 
187,  344-348,  399.  40i;  not 
infinite,  403. 

Eye,  evolution  of,  39  ;  the  telescope 
adds  a  set  of  lenses  to,  40. 

Faith,  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
81  ;  in  a  teleological  explanation 
of  the  universe,  81-83,  189. 

Family,  as  the  primordial  unit  of 
society,  46,  305  ;  originated 
through  the  prolongation  of  in- 
fancy, 46,  207,  300  ;  gave  rise  to 
morality,  46,  47,  54,  207  ;  devel- 
opment of,  into  the  clan,  54,  302. 


Faraday,  Michael,  demonstrated  the 
law  of  correlation  of  forces  in 
electricity,  410. 

Fatherhood  of  God,  in  Athanasian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  148  ;  in 
pure  monotheism,  240. 

Fechner,  G.  T.,  and  advance  of 
psychology,  126. 

Federation,  as  the  highest  method  of 
forming  political  bodies,  62  ;  at- 
tempt at,  by  the  Greeks,  62  ;  of 
the  Swiss,  63  5  of  Americans,  63. 

Feeling,  and  molecular  movement, 
in  the  brain,  77  ;  can  be  in  no 
sense  the  product  of  matter,  77. 

Fetichism,  and  a  quasi-human  God, 
349 ;  its  close  connection  with 
animism,  354. 

Fick,  August,  his  researches  in 
philology,  125  ;  on  derivation  of 
the  name  God,  418. 

Final  cause,  craving  for,  189,  203  ; 
one  of  the  master  facts  of  the 
universe,  217. 

Final  causes,  characterized  by  Bacon, 
102;  by  Huxley,  103. 

First  Cause,  its  connection  with 
Athanasian  theism,  163,  338  ; 
idea  of,  is  supported  by  modern 
scientific  thought,  338  ;  Agnos- 
tics and,  339. 

Flower,  simile  of  the  watch  replaced 
by  that  of  the,  182-185. 

Food,  obtaining  of,  the  cause  of  war- 
fare among  primitive  men,  55  ; 
increase  of  supply  of,  and  its  influ- 
ence on  civilization,  56. 

Force,  known  only  as  effort  over- 
coming resistance,  97  ;  error  of 
designating  God  as,  98,  345  ;  il- 
legitimate use  of  the  term,  158, 
160  ;  supposed  substitution  of,  for 
direct  action  of  the  Deity,  158, 
160,  163  ;  correct  use  of  the 
term,  159  ;  as  the  animating 
principle    of    the   universe,    198, 

1 99  5  as  infinite  and  eternal  Power, 

200  ;    finite   and    infinite,    345, 
346. 


429 


INDEX 


Forces,  correlation  of,  illustrates  the 
unity  of  nature,  195,241. 

France,  compared  with  England  as  to 
political  formation,  63  ;  built  upon 
the  principle  of  conquest  with  in- 
corporation, 63  ;  contest  with 
England  for  the  possession  of 
North  America,  64. 

French  atheism  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  330—336. 

Future  life,  cannot  be  demonstrated 
through  lack  of  experience,  77, 
78,  400  ;  belief  in,  traced  in  the 
ghost  world  of  primitive  man, 
353  ;  ethical  element  in,  357  ; 
Buddhist  conception  of,  390  ; 
Hebrew  and  Greek  idea  of,  391  ; 
Christian  conception  of,  392;  of 
the  lower  animals,  413  ;  the  re- 
cognition of  friends  in,  400.  See 
also  Unseen  World,  and  Immor- 
tality. 

Galilei  Galileo,  and  the  thought  of 
his  time,  6,  117,  394. 

Geologic  study  of  the  earth's  surface 
first  placed  upon  a  scientific  basis 
in  1830,  124. 

Geological  succession,  facts  of,  with 
reference  to  man,  ri. 

Gesta  Romanorum,  wisdom  in  the 
tales  of,  258. 

Ghosts,  their  place  in  primitive  phi- 
losophy, 134;  dreams  and,  135, 
381  ;  primitive  belief  in,  implies 
belief  in  an  unseen  world,  353, 
354;  ethics  and,  356,  380. 

Gnostics,  their  theory  of  vileness  of 
matter,  146  ;  their  idea  of  God 
in  connection  with  the  universe, 
154;  their  theory  of  God  and  the 
devil,  180. 

God,  must  be  symbolized  as  in  some 
way  psychical,  97,  98,  188,  202, 
348  ;  must  not  be  described  as 
force,  97,  98,  345  ;  may  be 
called  spirit,  98  ;  as  the  Infinite 
Power  that  is  the  eternal  source  of 
all  phenomena,   104,   107,  zoo, 


201,  21  o  ;  how  far  knowable  or 

unknowable,  107  ;  difficulty  of 
expressing  the  idea  of,  1 12,  202, 
344-346,  348  ;  symbolic  rites 
and  doctrines  have  usurped  the 
place  of,  I J  3  ;  fear  that  science 
will  rob  the  world  of,  116,  117, 
1 29  ;  anxiety  of  atheism  to  prove 
there  is  no,  1 1 6  ;  derivation  of 
the  name,  143,  418  ;  as  imma- 
nent in  the  world,  145-149,  162, 
167,  170,  aoi,  333,  337-3405 
as  acting  through  the  powers  of 
nature,  146  ;  as  remote  from  the 
world,  150-157,  186,  333  ;  as 
represented  in  the  miracle-plays, 
171,  172  ;  as  the  creator  of  evil, 
252  ;  kinship  between  the  human 
soul  and,  341,  348,  354.  See 
also  Deity,  Creator,  and  Idea  of 
God. 

Godless  universe,  assumption  of  a, 
164. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  theism  of,  98, 
99,  1 62  ;  quotation  from,  in  re- 
gard to  the  knowledge  of  God, 
105  ;  his  simile  of  the  children 
and  the  mirror,  107  ;  his  Faust 
in  regard  to  the  idea  of  God,  1 1 1  ; 
his  recognition  of  the  unity  of 
Nature,  194  ;  and  the  problem 
of  the  existence  of  evil,  229. 

Good  and  evil,  Parsee  theory  of,  1 79, 
234  ;  knowledge  of,  as  the  ser- 
pent's promise  to  the  woman, 
225-227  ;  Gnostic  theory  of, 
234  ;  distinct  sources  postulated 
for,  235  ;  one  cannot  exist  with- 
out the  other,  242,  250-252. 

Gothic  architecture,  unintelligible  to 
the  best  French  minds  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  332. 

Greek  Church,  philosophy  of  the 
three  greatest  fathers  of,  146. 

Greeks,  their  attempt  at  federation, 
62  ;  nature  worship  dominant  in 
their  religion,  136,  145;  their 
idea  of  God  as  immanent  in  the 
world,  139,  i4S-»49.  163,  338  j 


430 


INDEX 


their  power  of  abstract   thought 
seen  in  their  idea  of  God,  146. 
Gregariousness  in  higher  mammals, 

45- 
Grimm,  J.  L.  K.,  on  derivation  of 
the  word  God,  418. 

Haeckel,  E.  H.,  his  opinion  that 
death  ends  all,  218,  335. 

Halibut,  cerebrum  of,  is  smaller  than 
a  melon  seed,  31. 

Hamilton,  Sir  Rowan,  49. 

Hand,  evolution  of,  39,  40. 

Harp  and  its  music  as  a  simile  of  the 
relation  of  the  soul  to  the  body, 
344,412. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  his  shallow  criti- 
cism of  Spencer,  104  j  his  con- 
troversy with  Spencer  on  the  na- 
ture and  reality  of  religion,  217. 

Harvey,  William,  his  psychology  as 
aid  to  progress,  121. 

Hearing,  origin  and  development  of 
the  sense  of,  365. 

Heaven  of  Dante's  time  shattered  by 
modern  science,  6. 

Hebrew  religion,  development  of, 
traced,  140. 

Helvetius,  C.  A.,  character  of  his 
atheism,  331-333- 

Hermes  and  Wodan,  420. 

Hermit  and  the  angel,  story  of, 
256-259. 

Heyne  on  derivation  of  the  name 
God,  418. 

Hindu  philosophers  and  pantheism, 

Hindus,  nature  worship  dominant  m 
their  religion,  136,  145. 

History,  dawn  of,  through  acquisition 
of  written  language,  120;  recent 
growth  of  the  comparative  method 
in,  125. 

Holbach,  P.  H.  Thiry,   Baron  d', 

330. 
Holy  Spirit  in   Athanasian  doctrine 

of  the  Trinity,  148. 
Hugo,  Victor,  his  Les  Mis'erahles  an 

illustration   of  the   workings   of 


Christ's  methods,  74  ;  quotation 
from,  211. 

Humanity,  atheism  would  degrade, 
5  ;  the  significance  of,  enlarged  by 
the  Darwinian  theory,  14,  75  j 
perfecting  of,  is  to  be  the  consum- 
mation of  nature's  work,  19,  75. 
See  also  Man. 

Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  practi- 
cally a  materialist  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  219  ;  his  Kosmos  an  en- 
cyclopaedic book  without  pervading 
principle  of  unity,  220. 

Hume,  David,  330. 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  Through  Nature  to 
God  dedicated  to  the  memory  of, 
213;  his  use  of  the  phrase  cosmic 
process,  216,  285;  quotation  from 
his  Romanes  lecture  on  cosmic 
process  and  ethical  process,  283  ; 
his  attitude  toward  what  is  outside 
the    limits   of  the   human  mind, 

397- 

Huyghens,  Christian,  his  physics  as 
aid  to  progress,  121. 

Hypothesis,  absence  of  proof  in  an, 
does  not  create  a  negative  assump- 
tion where  proof  is  inaccessible, 
78. 

Hysteria  as  explained  by  theory  of 
other  self,  135. 

Idea  of  God  as  affected  by  Modern 
Knoivledge,  85-210  ;  dedication 
of,  86  ;  preface  to,  89-109  ; 
printed  exactly  as  delivered  at  Con- 
cord, 109. 

Idea  of  God,  among  primitive  men, 
129-137  ;  as  formed  through  the 
medium  of  nature-worship,  138, 
145.  146,  150.  152,  170,  201, 
202  ;  as  formed  through  the  me- 
dium of  ancestor-worship,  139, 
150,  151,  170  ;  first  reached 
adequately  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
and  Paul,  141,  142  ;  in  Atliana- 
sian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  147— 
149  ;  in  Augustinian  doctrine  of 
original  sin,  155, 156  j  transcends 


431 


INDEX 


our  powers  of  conception,  187, 
190,  202,  210,  344-348;  must 
be  gained  by  symbolic  conception, 
190,  346;  gradual  refinement  in 
the  formation  of,  354.  See  also 
Deity,  God,  and  Theism. 

Ideas,  the  adjustment  of,  to  objective 
facts,  366. 

Imagination,  as  influencing  actions, 
69  ;  close  connection  between 
sympathy  and,  69  ;  is  the  funda- 
mental intellectual  difference  be- 
tween civilized  men  and  savages, 
69. 

Immortality  of  the  soul,  cannot  be 
demonstrated  through  lack  of  ex- 
perience, 77,  78  ;  in  the  light  of 
the  doctrine  of  evolution,  79—83  ; 
belief  in,  as  a  supreme  act  of  faith, 
82  ;  conception  of,  an  attribute 
of  man  alone,  379  ;  genesis  and 
evolution  of  the  belief  in,  380- 
390,  413—415.  See  also  Future 
life,  and  Unseen  world. 

Improvableness  of  man,  49. 

Inanimate  objects,  ghosts  or  souls  of, 
in  primitive  philosophy,  135. 

Inconceivability,  of  a  fact,  does  not 
imply  its  non-existence,  187,  188; 
with  reference  to  the  unseen  world, 
402,  404. 

Indians,  American,  clan  system 
among,  30a. 

Individuality  in  connection  with  in- 
fancy, 34. 

Industrial  civilization,  diminishes  war- 
fare, 57,  65  ;  extends  the  sphere 
of  moral  obligation,  58  ;  warfare 
of,  against  barbarism,  60,  62. 

Infancy,  prolongation  of,  modifies 
tendency  of  heredity,  and  paves  the 
way  for  inventiveness  and  progress, 
34>  35>  3^>  ^6^  5  prolongation 
of,  and  increase  of  intelligence, 
mutual  reaction  of,  36,  37,  299, 
387;  gave  rise  to  society  through 
the  family  and  clan,  46,  207, 
304,  387  ;  altruism  due  to,  51, 
207  ;    theory   of,    forms   Fiske's 


especial  contribution  to  the  doc« 
trine  of  evolution,  215,  261. 

Infinite  personality,  an  expression  not 
justifiable,  188. 

Instinct  of  animals,  25,  28,  42. 

Intellectual  progress  of  man  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  126,  127. 

Intellectual  variations,  importance  of, 
in  the  genesis  of  man,  17.  See 
Psychical  variations. 

Intelligence,  growth  of,  and  pro- 
longation of  infancy,  mutual  reac- 
tion of,  36,  37,  299  ;  growth  of, 
in  man  greater  than  moral  growth, 
51,  70  5  evolution  of,  299,  3225 
finite  and  infinite  compared,  344, 

345- 
Isaiah,    prophet,   on  the    ways   and 

thoughts  of  God,  202,  340. 
Islands  of  the   Pacific,   docility   of 

savages  of,  55. 

Jehovah,  development  of  Hebrew 
conception  of,  140  ;  originally 
one  of  the  elohim,  140  ;  idea  of, 
freed  from  its  limitations  of  na- 
tionality by  Jesus  and  Paul,  141  ; 
in  the  Eden  myth,  226. 

Jesus  Christ,  his  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  interpreted  by  the  teach- 
ings of  evolution,  73  ;  his  con- 
ception of  a  state  of  society  in 
which  strife  is  eliminated,  75  ; 
transformed  the  idea  of  Jehovah 
to  the  idea  of  God,  141  ;  as 
heralding  the  time  when  warfare 
shall  cease,  142  ;  teachings  of, 
will  endure  as  long  as  man  en- 
dures, 142. 

Jesus  of  History,  its  connection  with 
The  Idea  of  God,  109. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  the  Founding 
of  Christianity,  the  title  of  a  pro- 
posed work,  108. 

Jews,  their  conception  of  Jehovah, 
140  ;  their  depth  of  ethical  feel- 
ing, 140  5  their  conception  of  im' 
mortality,  391. 

Joule,  J.  P.,  410. 


432 


INDEX 


Jurassic  period,  oviparous  dinosaurs 
of,  319. 

Kangaroos,  the  stage  which  they  re- 
present in  the  development  of 
mammals,  321. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  acceptance  of  his 
nebular  hypothesis,  1 24  }  on  God 
as  creator  by  free  and  understand- 
ing action,  188. 

Kepler,  Johann,  and  the  simile  of 
the  salad,  373. 

Kindness,  man's  slow  progress  in, 
70. 

Kleanthes,  theistic  conception  of  his 
hymn  to  Zeus,  142. 

Knowledge,  effect  of  the  advance  of, 
on  our  idea  of  God,  116  ;  rapid 
increase  of,  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 1 1 9-1 30. 

Laborer,  the  law  of  use  and  disuse 
applied  to  the,  69. 

Lalande,  J.  J.  L.  de,  his  remark  that 
he  had  swept  the  heavens  with  his 
telescope  and  found  no  God  there, 

332,  335- 
Lamb,  Charles,  his  story  of  the  roast 

pig,  280. 
La  Mettrie,  J.  O.   de,   his  theories 

suited    to    his    time,    218,    219  ; 

echoed  by  Biichner,  395. 
Language,  recent  achievement  in  the 

scientific    study    of,     124,    125  ; 

invention  of,  299,  300. 
Laplace,    P.   S.   de,   his  remark    on 

not  needing  the  hypothesis  of  God, 

153.  333-_ 

Lares,  worship  of,  141. 

Latin  idea  of  God  as  remote  from 
the  world,  1 50-1  5  7. 

Law,  reign  of,  in  nature,  338. 

Leibnitz,  G.  W.  B.  von,  his  objec- 
tions to  Newtonian  law  of  gravita- 
tion, 158,  162  ;  on  the  Creator 
and  his  world,  180,  232. 

Lessing,  G.  E.,  theism  of,  98,99, 
170. 

Life,  growing  predominance  of  the 


psychical,  42  ;  earthly,  sacrificed 
for  the  spiritual,  43  ;  and  its  envi- 
ronment, correspondence  between, 
361—363  ;    love  of,   is  universal, 

384. 
Life  Everlasting,  375-420. 
Likeness  and  unlikeness,  element  of, 

in    the     formation    of    conscious 

states,  248-251. 
Linnaeus,    Carolus,    his   remark    on 

God's  glory  seen  in  the  unfolding 

of  a  blossom,  360. 
Locke,  John,  and  atheism,  394. 
Locomotion,    changes    wrought   in, 

within  a  few  years,  122. 
Logic,   advance  in,  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  126. 
Lucretius,  philosophy  of,  153. 
Lyell,   Sir  Charles,    placed    geologic 

study  of  the  earth's  surface  on  a 

scientific  basis,  124. 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  on  the  battlefield 
of  Neerwinden,  273. 

Machinery,  developments  of,  within 
the  memory  of  living  men,  122  ; 
influence  of  its  development  on 
the  political  conditions  of  society, 
122. 

Mackay,  R.  W.,  his  Religious  De- 
'velopment  of  the  Greeks  and  He- 
hreivs  on  storm-spirit,  420. 

Majority,  the,  or  disembodied  souls, 
403. 

Mammals,  and  motherhood,  320  j 
development  of,  3205  victory  over 
oviparous  dinosaurs,  320. 

Man,  placed  at  the  centre  of  the 
universe  in  the  theology  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  4,  6  ;  his  place  in 
nature  as  affected  by  the  Coper- 
nican  theory,  6  ;  his  place  accord- 
ing to  the  Darwinian  theory,  10, 
13,  14,  19  ;  genesis  of,  16-18, 
287-290  :  differs  little  in  struc- 
ture but  enormously  in  intelligence 
from  the  highest  apes,  17,  18, 
260,  288  ;  can  never  be  sup- 
planted by  a  higher  race,  18  ;  the 


433 


INDEX 


earth  and  its  living  things  subordi- 
nated to,  20;  evolution  of,  through 
change  of  action  in  natural  selec- 
tion, i6,  23,  36,  47,  120,  206, 
260,  289,  297  ;  through  increase 
of  cerebrum,  30,  31,  47  ;  through 
dawning  of  consciousness,  32  ; 
through  prolongation  of  infancy, 
33»  36,  107,  291,  292,  299; 
progressiveness  of,  35,  47,  299  ; 
progress  of,  through  the  rise  of 
the  family,  46,  47,  291,  300; 
improvableness  of,  49-52 ;  pro- 
gress of,  through  the  establishment 
of  the  clan,  54,  302;  through  in- 
dustrial civilization,  56;  through 
political  development,  59^  through 
processes  of  direct  adaptation,  68, 
207,  208  ;  through  the  casting  off" 
of  his  brute  inheritance,  72  ;  ac- 
tion of  natural  selection  on,  modi- 
fied by  social  conditions,  68,  207- 
209,  261,  262  ;  as  the  consum- 
mation of  creative  energy,  75  ;  as 
the  chief  object  of  Divine  care,  75, 
209  ;  given  by  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  the  highest  place  in  the 
universe,  75,  100  ;  his  ultimate 
salvation  to  be  achieved  through 
ages  of  moral  discipline,  209  ;  as 
participator  in  the  Creator's  work 
236  ;  his  acquisition  of  speech, 
299,  300. 

Manichasism,  its  theory  of  evil  as 
distinct  in  source  and  opposed  to 
the  good,  179,  235. 

Manipulation  as  one  of  the  two  co- 
operating factors  in  intellectual 
progress,  40. 

Marital  relation,  beginning  of  the 
permanency  of,  301. 

Maritime  discoveries  of  the  fifteenth 
century  mark  an  epoch  in  human 
progress,  120. 

Martineau,  James,  on  God,  the 
Creator,  180  ;  his  writings  classed 
among  the  glories  of  English  lit- 
erature, 335. 

Materialisin,  as  iuMng  that  mind  is 


the  product  of  matter,  4,  34a, 
343,  405  ;  its  connection  with 
atheism,  4  ;  its  assumption  that 
there  is  no  future  life,  77,  78, 
82,  342  ;  discredited  by  doctrine 
of  evolution,  218  ;  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  contrasted  with  the 
theism  of  Voltaire,  218  ;  weak- 
ness of,  341-346  ;  as  substituting 
the    term  force   for    Deity,  341, 

345- 

Maternal  affection,  permanent  es- 
tablishment of,  300,  301  ;  the 
earliest  kind  of  altruism,  318  ; 
evolution  of,  traced,  318-320. 

Matter,  mind  not  a  product  of,  77, 
344;  indestructibility  of,  198; 
all  motions  of,  are  manifestations 
offeree,  198;  has  no  real  exist- 
ence apart  from  mind,  200  ;  as  a 
sum  of  conscious  states,  20 1  ; 
vileness  of,  232. 

Mediums,  belief  in,  hardly  merits 
notice  in  a  serious  philosophic  dis- 
cussion, 402. 

Mental  plasticity  and  infancy,  34. 

Metaphysics,  advance  of,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  126. 

Microscope,  enlarges  the  scope  of 
sight,  121. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  on  the  belief  that  like 
causes  must  be  followed  by  like 
effects,  81  ;  advance  of  logic  in 
his  time,  126  ;  points  out  a  weak- 
ness in  the  argument  from  design, 
177;  on  the  omnipotence  of  the 
Creator,  180,  235,  236  ;  on  man 
as  a  participator  in  the  work  of 
God,  236  ;  character  of  his  philo- 
sophy, 237,  238. 

Mind,  can  be  in  no  sense  the  pro- 
duct of  matter,  77,  344  ;  matter 
has  no  real  existence  apart  from, 
200,  201  ;  always  associated  with 
matter  in  our  experience,  398. 

Mind-stufF,  universe  of,  201,  244; 
primordial,  in  consciousness,  248. 

Miracle-plays,  the  anthropomorphic 
conception  of,  172. 


434 


INDEX 


Mivart,  St.  George,  his  remark  on 

the  difference    between   man  and 

ape,  z88. 
Molecular  physics,  advance  in,  during 

the  past  fifty  years,  123. 
Moleschott,  Jacob,  his  remark  "  No 

thought    without     phosphorus," 

332,  335»404- 

Moloch,  a  nature  god,  140. 

Molsa,  Francesco,  his  epigram  on 
the  death  of  Pompey,  377. 

Monism,  339. 

Monotheism,  development  of,  138- 
144  ;  as  developed  in  Greek 
thought  through  scientific  general- 
ization, 139;  as  found  in  the 
Jewish  Jehovah,  140  ;  first  com- 
plete form  of,  found  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  and  Paul,  141  ; 
derived  from  polytheism  by  a  slow 
evolution,  202,  350,  351  ;  teach- 
ing of  modern  science  leads  to  a 
pure  form  of,  240. 

Moral  growth  in  man  less  rapid  than 
intellectual  growth,  51,  70. 

Moral  ideas,  origin  and  development 
of,  through  the  cosmic  process, 
304-308,  311,  324. 

Morality,  prolongation  of  infancy  and 
rise  of,  46,  207  ;  its  connection 
with  the  modification  of  the  action 
of  natural  selection,  262,  263  ; 
no  method  of  reasoning  in  its 
genesis  and  evolution,  307,  308. 
See  also  Altruism,  and  Ethics. 

Motion,  continuity  of,  198. 

Miiller,  Eduard,  on  the  derivation 
of  the  name  God,  418. 

Miiller,  Max,  on  the  derivation  of 
the  name  God,  419. 

Musical  sounds  used  in  illustration 
of  conscious  states,  246. 

Mystery  of  E-vil^  223-267  ;  supple- 
ments certain  points  in  Idea  of 
God,  215. 

Mythology,  study  of  comparative,  is 
still  in  its  infancy,  125. 

Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  on  nature 
myths  the  foundation  of  all  myth- 

435 


ology,  1345  on  other  self  and 
ghosts,  135  ;  on  ancestor  wor- 
ship, 136;  on  Zulu  worship  of 
the  Great  Father,  i  50  ;  on  Ahri- 
man  and  Ormuzd,  179  ;  on 
Wodan,  or  Odin,  420. 

Natural  laws,  the  result  of  a  process 
of  evolution,  185,  337  j  our 
limited  comprehension  of,  220. 
Natural  selection,  general  facts  of, 
with  reference  to  nature,  12,  16; 
the  point  at  which  its  action 
changes,  16,  23,  36,  47,  120, 
206,  260,  289,  297 ;  as  sub- 
ordinate to  man's  selection,  20  ; 
its  action  modified  by  social  con- 
ditions, 67,  68,  207,  209,  261, 
262  ;  discovery  of,  a  matter  of 
recent  date,  124  ;  overthrows  the 
argument  from  design,  182  ;  teleo- 
logical  meaning  of,  206  ;  its  part 
in  leading  to  the  conception  of  the 
unity  of  nature,  219;  connection 
between  the  modification  of  its 
action  and  morality,  263  j  meth- 
ods of,  364. 

Nature,  belief  in  the  constancy  of, 
81;  strife  in,  178,  273-275; 
as  a  unit  animated  by  the  omni- 
present spirit  of  God,  220  ;  beau- 
ties of,  271  ;  rejuvenating  life  of, 
272  ;  epochs  in  the  working  of, 
414.      See  also  Unity  of  Nature. 

Nature-worship,  confused  with  an- 
cestor-worship among  primitive 
men,  136,  145  ;  dominant  in 
the  religions  of  the  Hindus,  Greeks, 
and  Teutonic  race,  137;  the  the- 
ism reached  through  the  medium 
of,  14s,  146,  150,  152,  170, 
201,  202. 

Nebular  hypothesis,  discloses  no  dra- 
matic tendencies  in  nature,  80  ; 
its  soundness  illustrated  by  its  sur- 
vival of  the  modern  enlargement 
of  knowledge,  1 24. 

Neerwinden,  battlefield  of,  covered 
with  poppies,  273. 


INDEX 


Negative  assumption  not  created  by 
lack  of  proof  where  proof  is  inac- 
cessible, 78. 

Nervous  system,  in  higher  orders  ma- 
tured after  birth,  25,  295,  296  ; 
relation  between  thought  and  the, 
is    one    of    concomitance,    411, 

4x3- 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  teachings  of  sci- 
ence misunderstood  in  the  day  of, 
117;  his  astronomy  as  aid  to  pro- 
gress, 121. 

Newtonian  theory  of  gravitation, 
theistic  objection  to,  158  ;  ac- 
ceptance of,  recent,  195  ;  illus- 
trates the  unity  of  nature,  195  ; 
teaching  of,  prohibited  in  Sala- 
manca, 393. 

Niagara,  sound  of,  used  to  illustrate 
the  character  of  consciousness, 
250. 

Old  Testament,  development  of  He- 
brew religion  in,  140. 

Omnipotence  of  the  Creator,  ques- 
tioned, 177;  sacrificed  in  favor 
of  his  benevolence,  1 79,  1 80. 

Omnipresent  Energy,  not  recognized 
by  Atheism,  93  ;  as  recognized  by 
Pantheism,  93  ;  as  recognized  by 
Theism,  94  ;  as  the  living  God, 

94- 

Opossums,  the  stage  which  they  re- 
present in  the  development  of 
mammals,  321. 

Orange  used  in  illustration  of  sym- 
bolic conception,  191. 

Organic  development,  memorable 
epochs  in,  119. 

Oriental  type  of  empire,  60. 

Origen,  idea  of  God  as  conceived  by, 
146,  170. 

Original  sin,  is  the  brute-inheritance 
of  man,  72  5   Augustine   doctrine 

of,  1 55-1 57- _ 

Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  1 79  ;  in  con- 
nection with  the  story  of  the  ser- 
pent in  Eden,  226. 

Other  self,  hypothesis  of,   in  primi- 


tive philosophy,  134;  explains 
hysteria,  epilepsy,  shadows,  echoes, 
and  reflections,  135;  of  animals, 
plants,  and  inanimate  objects, 
135  ;  of  dead  ancestors,  136; 
primitive  idea  of,  as  connected 
with  our  conception  of  the  immor- 
tal soul,  381. 

Outlines  of  Cosmic  Pkilosophf,  on 
materialism,  4 ;  on  genesis  of 
man,  17;  on  consciousness  and 
molecular  motion  in  the  brain, 
30  ;  on  cerebral  differences  be- 
tween men  and  animals,  32  ;  on 
vision  and  manipulation,  40  ;  on 
social  relations,  45  ;  on  the  family 
as  the  unit  of  society,  46  ;  on 
warfare  and  the  family,  54  ;  on 
rise  of  empires,  59 ;  on  natural 
selection  and  civilized  man,  68  ; 
on  teleology  and  Darwinism,  80, 
204  ;  on  the  setting  forth  of  a 
theory  of  theism,  95,  98,  loi  ; 
criticised  by  *'  Physicus "  and 
Pollock,  95  ;  explanation  of  the 
idea  of  God  in,  96-98  ;  alleged 
rejection  of  theism  in,  96  ;  a  new 
chapter  needs  to  be  added  to,  100  ; 
failure  of,  to  sum  up  the  full  pur- 
pose of  evolution,  lOO,  101  ;  on 
Deity,  how  far  knowable  and  un- 
knowable, 107  5  on  primitive  idea 
of  the  universe,  133  ;  on  Laplace's 
statement  of  not  needing  the 
hypothesis  of  God,  153  ;  on  the 
legitimate  business  of  science, 
162  ;  on  substitution  6f  physical 
force  for  divine  action,  166;  on 
omnipotence  of  the  Creator,  180; 
on  conception  of  Divine  Power, 
201. 

Oviparous  dinosaurs,  of  the  Jurassic 
period,  319;  rivalry  between  vivip- 
arous mammals  and,  320. 

Pain  cannot  exist   without  pleasure, 

250,251. 
Paleontology,    foundations    of,    laid 

within    the    nineteenth   century. 


436 


INDEX 


124  ;  teaches  the  unity  of  nature, 
241. 

Paley,  William,  his  theism  con- 
trasted with  cosmic  theism,  170  ; 
his  argument  from  design,  175- 
190,  238,  334;  theism  of,  over- 
thrown by  natural  selection,  183, 
206. 

Pantheism,  question  as  to  whether 
it  is  the  legitimate  outcome  of 
modern  science,  89  ;  vague  use 
of  the  term,  90,  91  ;  its  presenta- 
tion of  the  world  of  phenomena, 

93- 

Pardee  theory  of  creation,  234. 

Patron  saints,  worship  of,  a  survival 
of  the  worship  of  tutelar  deities, 
143. 

Paul,  Apostle,  his  conception  of  the 
war  in  man's  nature,  73  ;  freed 
the  idea  of  Jehovah  from  its  na- 
tional limitations,  141  ;  teachings 
of,  will  endure  as  long  as  man 
endures,  142  ;  story  of  Eve's 
temptation  first  assumes  promi- 
nence in  the  writings  of,  225  5  on 
unknowableness  of  God,  340. 

Paulus  Diaconus,  on  pronunciation 
of  Wodan,  419. 

Penates,  worship  of,  14 1. 

Pentateuch,  story  of  the  serpent  in 
Eden  in,  225. 

Persians,  ancient,  show  the  result  of 
an  oriental  type  of  empire,  60. 

Persistence  of  force  manifested 
throughout  nature,  198. 

Persistence  of  species,  315;  assured 
by  protection  of  ofifepring,  316. 

Personality  incompatible  with  in- 
finity, 97,  345. 

Personification,  of  natural  forces  by 
primitive  man,  133-135;  of 
"force,"  158;  of  physical  forces 
compared  with  polytheism,  163. 

Petit,  A.  T.,  demonstrated  the  law 
of  correlation  of  forces  in  heat, 
410. 

Philosophy  of  the  plan  of  salvation, 
180. 


Phosphorus,  Moleschott's  remark 
about  its  relation  to  thought,  332, 

335.  404- 

Physical  variations,  when  abandoned 
by  natural  selection  for  psychical 
variations,  16,  23,  38,  47,  207, 
290. 

"  Physicus,"  his  criticism  of  Out- 
lines of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  95, 
102. 

Pianist,  training  of  faculties  necessary 
to  a,  29,  293. 

Picton,  J.  A. ,  his  Mystery  of  Matter 
on  meditations  of  a  savage,  417, 
418. 

Pitch,  musical,  used  in  illustration 
of  conscious  states,  247. 

Pitris  and  Yama  in  Vedic  religion, 
136. 

Plant  life,  adjustment  to  its  environ- 
ment, 361,  362;  the  shrinking 
from  death  in,  384. 

Plato,  his  idea  of  God  as  remote 
from  the  world,  154;  on  limita- 
tion of  the  Creator's  power,  180, 
232  ;  his  horror  of  "brute  mat- 
ter," 236. 

Pleasure  cannot  exist  without  pain, 
250,  251. 

Political  communities,  as  arising 
through  conquest  without  incor- 
poration, 60  ;  as  formed  by  con- 
quest with  incorporation,  61  ;  as 
formed  by  federation,  62-64 ; 
tendency  toward  larger,  seen  in 
history,  64. 

Pollock,  Frederick,  his  SpinoTia  on 
Pantheism,  91  ;  on  Outlines  of 
Cosmic  Philosophy,  95,  I02. 

Polyp  and  bloodhound,  compared  in 
reference  to  adjustment  to  en- 
vironment, 363. 

Polytheism,  decline  of  classic,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era, 
141  ;  monotheism  derived  from, 
202,  350,  351. 

Pompey,  death  of,  377. 

Positivism,  satisfied  to  consider  the 
universe  as  under  a  reign  of  law, 


437 


INDEX 


338  J  on  immortality  of  the  soul, 

354,  355- 

Power,  Infinite,  applied  to  God  in 
an  erroneous  sense,  97  ;  the  eter- 
nal source  of  all  phenomena,  104, 
107,  200,  210  J  as  the  cause  of 
conscious  states,  104,  201  ;  as 
the  living  God.  See  also  God, 
Idea  of  God,  Deity. 

Prehistoric  time,  duration  of,  37. 

Priestley,  Joseph,  his  discovery  of 
oxygen,  123. 

Primeval  philosophy,  still  exists 
among  savage  tribes,  133. 

Primitive  men,  universal  warfare  of, 

S3;. 
Primitive  thought,  kernels  of  truth 

in,  382,  389, 
Progress,  origin  of  the  capacity  for,  in 

man,  35,  47  ;  periods  of  marked 

advance  in  man's,  120. 
Protective  tariff,  so  called,  a  survival 

of  barbarous  modes    of  thought, 

57._ 

Psychical  states,  in  the  production  of 
consciousness,  245-248  ;  illus- 
trated in  musical  sounds,  246. 

Psychology,  advance  in,  during  the 
nineteenth  century,  126. 

Ptolemaic  astronomy,  absurdity  of,  in 
the  light  of  modern  knowledge, 
389. 

Purgatory  of  Dante's  time  shattered 
by  modem  science,  5. 

Purpose,  element  of,  in  the  universe, 
103, 

Red,  the  color,  used  in  illustration 
of  the  character  of  consciousness, 
248. 

Reflections  explained  by  theory  of 
other  self,  135. 

Reflex  actions,  tendency  to  perform 
them  completely  organized  in  the 
nervous  system  before  birth,  24, 
296  ;  facts  of,  with  regard  to 
consciousness,  28. 

Religion,  theory  of,  as  outlined  in 
Destiny  of  Man,  and  Idea  of  God, 


107,  108  ;  so-called  conflict  be- 
tween science  and,  157,  158-168, 
186,  372  ;  Spencer's  theory  that 
the  ultimate  form  of,  is  derived 
from  the  primeval  form  of,  217; 
Spencer's  and  Harrison's  contro- 
versy upon  the  nature  and  reality 
of,  217  ;  genesis  of,  309,  368  ; 
its  relation  to  ethics,  310  }  its 
everlasting  reality  traced  in  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  310,  359— 
371  ;  its  first  postulate  the 
quasi-human  God,  349-35*  ; 
its  second  postulate  the  undying 
human  soul,  353-356  ;  its  third 
postulate  the  ethical  significance 
of  the  unseen  world,  356-359; 
summary  of  the  argument  on, 
367—372  ;  destruction  of  doc- 
trines in,  359.      See  Theism. 

Religious  thought,  revolution  in, 
caused  by  the  advance  of  modern 
knowledge,  128. 

Rise  of  man  as  beginning  in  the  loss 
of  paradise,  228. 

Roman  Empire,  its  method  of  con- 
quest with  incorporation,  61. 

Romanes  lecture  of  Huxley  at  Ox- 
ford, 1893,  replied  to  by  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  oration  at  Harvard,  1895, 

2.15- 
Romans,  their  adoption  of  Greek 
divinities,  137;  their  conception 
of  Deity  inferior  to  that  of  the 
Jews,  141  ;  anthropomorphism  of, 
171. 

St.  Thomas,  his  Summa  and  its  time, 
392. 

Salvation  of  man,  process  of  evolu- 
tion an  advance  toward,  72  ;  to 
be  achieved  through  ages  of  moral 
discipline,  209. 

Sarameyas  and  Wodan,  420. 

Satan,  and  the  serpent  in  Eden,  226. 

Savage,  brain  of,  compared  with  that 
of  civilized  man,  31,  49  ;  his  crude 
fancies  contain  germs  of  truth, 
382. 


438 


INDEX 


Scepticism  of  our  day,  335,  336. 

Schlegel,  Friedrich,  his  discovery  of 
the  kinship  between  the  Aryan 
languages,  124,  125. 

Schleiden,  M.  J.,  124. 

Schleiermacher,  F.  E.  D.,  theism 
of,  170. 

Scholar,  cerebral  sur^ce  of  the  brain 
of,  32. 

Schwann,  Theodor,  124. 

Science,  opposition  of  the  church  to 
the  teachings  of  modern,  5  ;  evo- 
lution of,  40,  43  ;  charged  by 
theologians  and  atheists  with  sub- 
stituting blind  force  for  God,  116, 
117;  so-called  conflict  between 
religion  and,  157,  J58-168,  186, 
372  ;  legitimate  business  of,  161  ; 
justifies  the  belief  in  God  as  om- 
nipotent and  the  author  of  good 
and  evil,  240—242  ;  efiFect  of 
modern,  on  philosophy  and  meta- 
physics, 395-397- 

Scientific  discoveries  of  thenineteenth 
century  transcend  all  previous  ac- 
complishment, 121—128. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  quotation  from  his 
Hel-vellyn,  385. 

Secession,  the  war  of,  fought  in  be- 
half of  federalism,  6  5 . 

Self-government,  of  England,  63  j 
tendency  toward,  shown  in  his- 
tory,   64. 

Senses,  how  the  evolution  of  the, 
expands  the  world,  364-366. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  clue  to  the 
meaning  of,  found  in  the  highest 
development  of  man,  73,  74. 

Serpent  in  Eden,  story  of,  probably 
first  placed  in  the  Pentateuch  after 
return  of  the  Jews  from  Babylon, 
225  ;  first  assumes  prominence  in 
the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  225, 
2.28  ;  as  the  Persian  Ahriman, 
225,  226  ;  not  identified  with 
Satan,  226  ;  his  promise  to  the 
woman,  225-227. 

Shadows,  as  explained  by  theory  of 
other   self,  135. 


Shakespeare's  brain  and  that  of  a 
savage  compared,  49. 

Shaler,  N.  S.,  his  Indi'vidual  on 
man's  recognition  of  death,  386. 

Sight,  origin  and  development  of, 
365. 

Signatures,  doctrine  of,  in  the  light 
of  modern  knowledge,  389. 

Sin,  necessity  of,  to  the  existence  of 
morality,  251,  265  j  Fiske's  ar- 
gument in  regard  to  the  necessity 
of,  misunderstood,  253—255. 

Skeat,  W.  W.,  on  derivation  of  the 
name  God,  41  8. 

Society,  origin  of,  45,  207;  develop- 
ment of,  through  the  clan,  54  ; 
development  of,  through  indus- 
trial civilization,  565  growth  of, 
through  political  development, 
60-66  ;  perfect  state  of,  reached 
through  evolution,  72,  207,  208  ; 
cosmic  and  ethical  process  of  pro- 
gress in,  284. 

Son  of  God,  an  Athanasian  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  148. 

Soul,  its  abode  on  earth,  7  ;  as  the 
product  of  creative  energy,  19, 
20,  67,  80  ;  Platonic  view  of, 
27  ;  change  in  the  relation  to  the 
body  in  the  course  of  development, 
44  ;  always  associated  with  the 
body  in  our  experience,  77  ;  im- 
mortality of,  77,  78,  353,  354; 
as  the  climax  of  nature's  creative 
work,  835  as  a  divine  effluence, 
83  ;  kinship  between  God  and, 
341,  348,  354;  and  other  self, 
381  ;  question  as  to  when  it 
comes  into  existence,  414. 

Special-creation  hypothesis,  19,  372. 

Spectrum  analysis,  disclosures  of, 
illustrate  the  unity  of  Nature,  1 96, 
219,  241. 

Speech,  invention   of,    299,    300. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  his  remark  that 
the  telescope  adds  a  set  of  lenses 
to  the  eye,  40  ;  on  like  causes 
followed  by  like  effects,  81  ;  his 
doctrine  of  tlie  Unknowable,  104; 


439 


INDEX 


his  essay  on  Retrogressive  Religion, 
104  ;  and  advance  of  psychology, 
126;  on  persistence  as  the  ulti- 
mate test  of  reality,  1 89  ;  proved 
universal  evolution  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  persistence  of  force, 
198  ;  controversy  with  Harrison, 
217;  on  development  of  religion, 
217  ;  his  Principles  of  Psychology 
was  the  first  application  of  the 
theory  of  evolution  on  a  grand 
scale,  219  ;  gulf  between  his  phi- 
losophy and  that  of  Comte,  237  ; 
his  Biology  on  the  modification  of 
the  action  of  natural  selection, 
261  ;  on  the  relation  of  life  to  its 
environment,  361—363  ;  his  re- 
mark on  the  fact  that  physical 
problems  lead  to  metaphysical  ones, 
396;  on  consciousness  and  molec- 
ular motion  in  the  brain,  409  ; 
alteration  of  opinion  in  final  edi- 
tion of  his  First  Principles,  409. 

Spinoza,  Benedikt  or  Baruch  de, 
theism  of,  162,  170;  his  recog- 
nition of  the  unity  of  Nature, 
194. 

Stewart,  Balfour,  his  Paradoxical 
Philosophy  on  Kepler  and  the 
salad,  373. 

Stoics,  pantheism  and,  91  ;  philoso- 
phy of,  146. 

Strife  in  nature,  178,  273-275. 

Struggle  for  existence,  in  organic  life, 
16,  51,  207,  274,_  276,  279, 
283  ;  and  the  bringing  forth  of 
the  soul,  19,  67  ;  will  disappear 
in  higher  orders,  67  ;  in  human 
progress,  207 ;  in  the  develop- 
ment of  civilization,  278. 

Sub-consciousness  or  elementary  psy- 
chical states,  245-248. 

Summer  field  and  what  it  tells  us, 
271-275. 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  working  of  the 
law  of,  277,  364  ;  has  no  relation 
to  moral  ends,  285. 

Sweetness  cannot  exist  without  bit- 
terness, Z50. 


Swiss,  federation  of  the,  63. 

Symbolic  conceptions,  of  Deity,  113, 
190,  346  ;  of  complex  objects, 
192;  danger  of  framing  illegiti- 
mate, 193. 

Sympathy,  rudimentary  form  of,  in 
higher  mammals,  46  ;  arose  in 
man  with  the  genesis  of  the 
family,  47  }  and  the  development 
of  altruism,  51  ;  close  connection 
between  imagination  and,  69  ;  fu- 
ture development  of,  71,  208. 

Tait,  P.  G. ,  his  Paradoxical  Philoso- 
phy  on  Kepler  and  the  salad,  373. 

Teachableness  of  animals,  34. 

Teleological  explanation  of  the  uni- 
verse, demanded  by  man,  188  j 
question  of  the  validity  of,  189  j 
as  the  only  explanation,  210, 
220. 

Teleology,  and  Darwinism,  80,  204, 
206  ;  of  the  Destiny  of  Many  ex- 
plained, 99 ;  the  working  out 
of,  by  evolution,  102;  considered 
worthless  as  a  means  of  investiga- 
tion, 103. 

Telescope  adds  an  extra  set  of  lenset 
to  the  eye,  40,  121. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord,  quotations, 
217,  326,  360;  idea  of  the  Cre- 
ator in  his  Arthur,  234. 

Teraphim,  or  tutelar  household  dei- 
ties, 140. 

Tertullian,  theism  of,  contrasted 
with  cosmic  theism,  170. 

Testimony,  absence  of,  and  negative 
assumptions,  404. 

Theism,  the  world  of  phenomena  as 
presented  by,  93,  94;  anthro- 
pomorphic and  cosmic,  compared, 
98,  169-174  ;  of  Athanasius, 
147,  163,  167;  as  an  outgrowth 
of  nature-worship  and  of  ancestor- 
worship,  compared,  150,  152, 
170;  of  Augustine,  155,  162; 
must  retain  something  of  anthro- 
pomorphism, 170,  173,  186, 
351,  352  J  reinforced  by  doctrine 


440 


INDEX 


of  evolution,  218.  See  also  Idea 
of  God. 

Theistic  idea,  element  of  dependence 
in,  131  ;  traced  in  personification 
of  natural  forces  by  primitive  men, 
133  ;  in  theory  of  ghosts,  134; 
in  ancestor-worship,  1365  in  Jew- 
ish conception  of  Jehovah,  140; 
in  the  monotheistic  teachings  of 
Jesus  and  Paul,  141.  See  also 
Idea  of  God. 

Theology,  advance  of,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  126. 

Thorpe,  Benjamin,  his  Northern 
M\thology  on  derivation  of  the 
name  God,  418. 

Thought  and  molecular  motion  in 
the  brain,  77. 

Through  Nature  to  God,  211-373  ; 
on  an  unseen  world,  415. 

Time,  duration  of  prehistoric,  37. 

Tir  nan  Og,  legend  of  the  land  of, 
273. 

Tolstoi,  Count  L.  N.,  the  problem 
of  the  existence  of  evil  in  his  War 
and  Peace,  Z2,<). 

Tones,  used  in  illustration  of  con- 
scious states,  247. 

Total  depravity,  theory  that  gave 
rise  to  doctrine  of,  1 80. 

Touch,  development  of  the  sense  of, 

364- 
Town,   mental  conception  of,  must 

be  symbolic,  192. 
Township,  originated  in  the  stockaded 

dwelling-place  of  a  clan,  54. 
Tradition  as  the  beginnings  of  liter- 
ature and  science,  300. 
Trinity,  doctrine  of  the,  Athanasian 

view  of,  147. 
Tutelar  deities,  merged  into  a  single 

national  deity,  140. 
Tyndall,  John,  on  conscious  thought 

and  molecular  motion  in  the  brain, 

409 

Veb, 


'eherivundener  Standpunkt,  ein,  an 
expression  of  an  attitude  of  mind, 


%%0. 


Undulatory  motion  illustrates  the 
unity  of  nature,  195,  219. 

United  States,  federal  union  in,  63  ; 
principles  represented  in  the  two 
great  wars  of,  65. 

Unity  of  Nature,  demonstrated  by 
modem  science,  194,  241  ;  illus- 
trated in  the  law  of  gravitation, 
195  ;  in  correlation  of  forces, 
195,  219,  241  ;  in  disclosures  of 
spectrum  analysis,  196,  219,  241  ; 
in  the  law  of  evolution,  197,  219. 

Unknowable,  Spencer's  doctrine  of 
the,  104-106,  340  ;  the  use  of 
the  term  criticised  as  applied  to 
Deity,  104,  339;  term  approved 
when  properly  understood,  106  ; 
how  far  Deity  is,  107. 

Unkulunkulu,  Zulu  worship  of, 
150. 

Unseen  Uni-verse,  its  authors'  ex- 
pression of  faith,  81. 

Unseen  World,  on  consciousness, 
27  5  on  a  future  life,  76,  78,  81  ; 
on  theistic  idea  in  Kleanthes' 
hymn  to  Zeus,  142  ;  on  Gnostic 
idea  of  God  in  connection  with 
the  world,  155. 

Unseen  world,  and  the  ghost-world 
of  primitive  man,  217,  353  ;  and 
a  quasi-human  God,  353,  357; 
ethical  element  in  the  conception 
of,  356,  357,  370  ;  idea  of, coeval 
with  the  beginnings  of  humanity, 

368,  387,  389  ;  summary  of  tlie 
origin  and  development  of  the  be- 
lief in,  368  ;  summary  of  the 
arguments    for   the    existence  of, 

369,  370  ;  as  conceived  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
392  ;  revolution  in  idea  of, 
through  Copernican  theory,  393  ; 
and  modern  science,  394,  398  ; 
transcends  our  powers  of  concep- 
tion, 399,  400.  &■?  also  Future 
life,  and  Immortality. 

Uranos,   as   the  father  of  gods  and 

men,  137. 
Use  and  disuse,  law  of,  69. 


441 


INDEX 


Variations  in  intelligence,  17. 

Vendidad  on  the  creation  of  the 
world,  234. 

Vice,  reason  for  the  slow  decrease 
of,  68. 

Virgin  Mary,  worship  of,  a  survival 
of  the  worship  of  the  Berecynthian 
Mother,  143. 

Vision,  one  of  the  two  cooperating 
factors  in  intellectual  progress,  40. 

Volition,  idea  of,  in  primitive  ex- 
planation of  physical  phenomena, 
1 64  ;  finite  and  infinite  compared, 

345- 
Voltaire,  F.  M.  A.  de,  thebm  of, 
contrasted  with  cosmic  theism, 
1 70 ;  and  the  argument  fi-om 
design,  175  ;  and  the  problem  of 
the  existence  of  evil,  229  ;  his 
home  at  Ferney,  327 ;  parish 
church  dedicated  by,  328,  334; 
his  attitude  toward  the  church  and 
theology,  329  ;  his  use  of  the 
term  "The  Infamous,"  330; 
character  of  his  theism,  334  ;  ques- 
tions when  the  soul  comes  into 
existence,  414. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  his  theory  of  the 
change  in  the  direction  of  the 
working  of  natural  selection,  289, 
290. 

Warfare,  place  of,  in  the  evolution 
of  man,  51  ;  chronic  state  of, 
among  primitive  men,  5  3  ;  neces- 
iity  of,   55  ;  diminished   through 


industrial  civilization,  57,  64-66 ; 
of  industrial  civilization  against 
barbarism,  60  5  incident  upon  po- 
litical development,  60 ;  necessity 
of,  at  an  end,  62  ;  gradual  elimi- 
nation of,  65-67,  208;  the  time 
when  it  shall  cease  heralded  by 
Jesus,  142. 

Watch,  simile  of,  replaced  by  that 
of  the  flower,  182-185. 

Westermarck,  Edward,  on  perma- 
nency of  marital  relation  among 
savages,  301. 

Whately,  Richard,  advance  of  logic 
before  and  after  his  time,  126. 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  393. 

Win,  quasi-human,  as  underlying 
physical  phenomena  in  primitive 
philosophy,  164.      See  Volition. 

Wodan,  and  the  name  God,  143, 
418-420. 

World,  the  best  that  could  have  been 
made  out  of  the  materials  at  hand, 
180,  232. 

Wright,  Chauncey,  his  term  cosmi- 
cal  weather,  92. 

Wundt,  Wilhelm,  and  advance  of 
psychology,  126. 

Yuletide,  an  adoption  from  nature- 
worship,  143. 

Zendaresta,  Ahriman  and  Ormuzd 
in,  179. 

Zulus,  their  worship  of  a  first  ances- 
tor, the  Great  Father,  150. 


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